Alone
by mak5258
Summary: A freakish flaw in the computers of an Ancient outpost traps Jack and Sam alone together.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, and the stargate wasn't my idea even though I think its really cool.

Jack was sitting at his desk pretending to work when the email popped up. Surprisingly, it was from Hank Landry, the new commander at the SGC. He opened it, the first email he'd opened all day out of all that he'd received. Landry wanted him to make a trip to the SGC to help the scientists out; they'd found an Ancient colony and had nobody on base that could activate any of the technology. In the attempt to get him to come the general promised that Jack would be able to handpick his team of scientists.

_As long as I don't get stuck with Felger and I get out of the Pentagon, I'm in._ Jack thought to himself, picking up the phone to check in with Landry before phoning Hammond to get permission to go offworld.

"Are you kidding, Jack!" Hammond wasn't taking it as well as Jack had hoped. "The President has had us preparing this information for months; you can't walk out on a project like this!"

"Of course I won't, sir," he smirked. "I'll be flying the jumper out on them, not walking."

"Jack, these are important presentations… what if the Ori attack, we need to have these ready and the right people informed to calm the masses in time..."

"Sir, you know you're better at that than I am anyways…"

Eventually Hammond gave in, letting a grinning Jack leave for Cheyenne Mountain that afternoon.

There was no welcoming committee or anything when Jack arrived at his old stomping grounds, not that he'd expected one. The airmen at the check in looked startled when Jack's name popped up on the screen. "Good morning, sir. Glad to see you back."

Jack just nodded and made his way to the locker rooms. His locker had been taken over by Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell. He made his way to the locker in the back where he had left all of his spare fatigues and pulled some out. They smelled of locker but he put them on anyways, hoping it wouldn't be noticeable later.

Landry's office was in a state of panic. Not only were the Ori driving them all to the brink, but Ba'al had recently stolen a number of 'gate addresses. Numerous reports were in the in-box, requisition requests, and on his desk, his laptop flashed that he had 32 new emails. Landry walked in shortly after Jack, looking stressed and a bit surprised that he had gotten there so fast.

"Hey, Jack! Wasn't expecting to see you so soon."

"Landry, sorry to be so punctual."

"Not a problem at all, in fact your being here gets rid of about half the requisitions on my desk- you'll be taking away the scientists that keep sending them," Landry said with a smile. Jack chuckled as well and escorted himself to Daniel's lab; he was heading up most of the research by translating it all for the scientists.

As was expected, Daniel looked like he had won the lottery, only more tired and off color and less rolling in money. Vala was sitting in his chair, spinning in circles and talking about absolutely nothing. Jack decided that he liked her immediately. Looking around the room, many more people were sitting around examining things. Daniel finished translating something and handed it to one of the airmen at the door, he looking around and cracked his knuckles.

"Oh, hi Jack!" He said. His voice was full of exhausted enthusiasm. Daniel launched into a full scale explanation of the project, where they'd be going, what they'd be doing, what had been done, what had to be done, what to bring, the best way to pack the jumper… anything and everything. Jack tuned him out, instead he shifted his eyes to Vala who had made an annoyed face and Daniel and was mocking him behind his back. "And yesterday, the sharks at the zoo were doing back flips and one of them ate my phone which I finally found this morning on p3x724," Daniel finished looking at Jack for a response.

"Oh, really Daniel. That's great. When do we leave?"

"You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"

"Course I did! I always listen when you talk."

"I like him Daniel; he listens worse than I do" Vala put in. "Does that mean you'll criticize him instead of me for awhile now?" Daniel threw her a look.

"What?" Jack asked, looking between the pair of them.

"Well," Vala started, "he just finished telling you about the sharks at the zoo that ate his phone."

"Oh."

"Welcome back, Jack," Daniel said with a smile. "Sam's in her lab, can you run this down to her on the way?" He held up a thick stack of digital prints from wherever, they were each covered in a layer of transparency paper with word in red marker all over it. Trying not to smudge the marker, Jack walked out of the room.

"You didn't even get mad at him!" Vala complained as he left the room. "Whenever I…"

"Vala, shut up!" Daniel barked.

Sam's lab was much the same as Daniel's only it was full of scientists. Felger included. Seeing the man almost made Jack turn around to find a good hiding spot but he was spotted first. "General O'Neill!" The man's excited voice stopped all work in the room. Sam looked up disdainfully at her fellow scientist before throwing her former CO and apologetic look and turning back to her work.

Jack came in the door hesitantly and put the stack of prints on the corner of Sam's desk. Felger came over and began talking, much like Daniel had only moments ago. Finally, Sam shoved the prints at Felger and barked, "Work!" in her most soldier-like voice. Felger did what he was told, grabbing the prints and immediately dropping half the stack.

Sam only stared at the papers scattered all over the floor of her lab. She had wanted to kill the man many times today, but this was the closest she had ever come to it. "Lunch?" Jack asked her, seeing the look she was giving Felger. Sam nodded, still visibly tense.

After a failed attempt to get Daniel to put down his translations and come to lunch, the pair of them headed to the commissary with only Vala in tow. They found Teal'c and Mitchell there too, and they all had a very pleasant meal together. Vala found Jack very entertaining and she didn't refrain from saying so. Though Jack appreciated her comments, he still didn't feel comfortable around her. Mitchell was another story altogether. He obviously respected the general, and wanted to get on his good side but the friendship the three members of the original SG1 had was a little intimidating.

Almost five hours later SG1 and a team of scientists and translators were preparing to leave for the Ancient outpost. SG1 was inside the jumper with Jack at the controls. Sam had taken the seat next to him leaving the other four to make themselves comfortable in the back. Daniel was seated next to Vala, keeping her hands away from the time device while answering all her questions.

Annoyed by the constant chatter from the back seat, Jack closed the doors, shutting them off from the back compartment. "How did you get wrapped into that one?" He asked Sam, humor in his eyes. Sam shrugged in response.

"She's not that bad, sir," she admitted. "Once you get used to her."

"In other words you've found my replacement?" He chuckled at Sam's bumbling attempts to reply.

A few seconds later they were all unloading the jumper on the other side of the wormhole.

Daniel didn't help much; he was too excited about being back at the Ancient-outpost-close-to-home and ran off in the direction of the archives, closely followed by a few of the lazier linguists. Felger went immediately to one of the consoles and began hitting buttons, beating even Sam. Jack chuckled as he unloaded his share of the equipment.

The unloading was interrupted when the entire outpost began shuddering. Felger stepped away from the console with is hands up. "That was _not_ me!" He exclaimed. While Jack radioed Daniel to see what he'd done Sam went to the console to make sure Felger wasn't lying. _Why did I let him come along, again?_ Jack asked himself, not coming up with an answer.

"We haven't touched anything, Jack, just looking around. What's going on?" Daniel's voice crackled over the radio.

"Sir, it wasn't Daniel. It was Felger over here," she tried pushing a few buttons without any response. "What did you do?" Felger only shrugged.

"Daniel, get back up here," Jack ordered coming to the console.

Sam threw Felger a look; he'd pressed just the right combination of buttons to set the alarms off around the entire complex. Sam turned her glare to the panel below her, "What did you do, press random buttons?" She asked him. She had a barely working knowledge of the Ancient language; luckily it was enough to decipher the keys on the panel below her. She hit a combination of buttons and the blaring noise turned off, the halls shook for a few seconds before the reverberations stopped.

"What was that shaking?" Daniel asked, coming into the stargate room with his entourage of linguists.

"Felger here set off the alarm and it was loud enough to make the old halls shake," Jack said. He hadn't liked Felger before and he really didn't like him now. "One more mishap like this, Felger, and you're home."

"But… I… You can't…" Felger stuttered looking at Sam for reassurance and not getting any.

"I do believe I can," was all Jack said, holding up a finger in warning. He then sighed and turned to Sam. "Carter, you should get started."

"Yes, sir," she responded.

It gave Jack great pleasure to be dialing the 'gate to send Felger home after only two days. Though it was a relatively short time he was glad he had restrained himself for so long; the man just got under his skin. Luckily, Sam had seemed to agree that her fellow scientist was more trouble than anything else; she hadn't protested when Jack had barked at Felger to get his stuff and meet him at the 'gate.

The 'gate 'kawooshed' and Jack sent his IDC through, Felger gave him one more reproachful glance before following the direction Jack's finger was pointing and stepping though the event horizon. As Felger stepped through Jack heard a familiar voice call out, "Sir!" It was Sam. He spun around in time to see his friend get sucked into the wall.

"What did you do now?" He asked, walking over. To his surprise the walls seemed to be trying to suck people up all over; scientists backed away from the walls as computers were sucked in and then spat back out at high velocities. "Everybody out!" He yelled, running towards the control chair to see what he could do. "Get to the 'gate!"

Scientists and linguists ran through the 'gate as fast as they could, leaving their computers to the hungry walls. Nothing happened when he sat in the chair; instead he jumped out of the chair and continued to urge the teams to get out of the crazy outpost.

** So, what do you think? Should I keep going or am I a lost cause? **


	2. Chapter 2

"What the _hell_ is going on?" Vala yelled as she and the rest of SG1 approached the 'gate. Jack just shook his head and motioned her through the 'gate, she jogged through without hesitation.

"Where's Sam?" Daniel asked, refusing to pass through the event horizon. Instead he stood to the side, behind Jack, and waited for an answer. He didn't fail to notice the clouded look that crossed Jack's face.

"She was the first to go," he said, only loud enough for both he and Teal'c to hear. Mitchell ran up behind them shortly.

"Where's Sam?" He asked, looking around for the other colonel of SG1. "Shouldn't we get out of this... place?"

The remaining members of the original SG1 exchanged a glance; Jack looked around the complex for remaining scientists to avoid answering, so Daniel told Mitchell what had happened. Behind them, the last of the scientists ran through holding laptops and sheets of notepaper.

"We should probably go," Mitchell said to the three remaining men. He looked at the walls; they were fast approaching the 'gate, looking for something, or somebody, to eat up. Exchanging glances, they all moved closer to the event horizon. Daniel and Teal'c looked at Jack one last time; he was running back towards the control chair. They followed Mitchell through the 'gate.

The 'gate room was in chaos. Terrified linguist and scientists were pacing and mumbling to each other, a few nursed small wounds from flying computers. Felger stood at the back of the room looking disappointed that he'd missed out on the mayhem. Doctors immediately ran up to them, removing their weapons and checking them over for injuries; nobody was hurt too badly.

"Where's General O'Neill?" Landry asked, approaching them as they walked off the ramp, the 'gate shutting down behind them. Daniel and Teal'c exchanged silent looks of understanding while Mitchell spun around to see for himself.

"He's not with us?" Mitchell asked. "He was right behind us…" He looked at Daniel and Teal'c for an explanation but didn't get one; he still wasn't fluent in their secret language of looks and postures. "Jackson?"

"He stayed to try and use the control chair to get back the people who were… taken by the walls," Daniel explained. Landry gave him a look that told him that the excuse wasn't good enough.

"So now we've lost Colonel Carter, the jumper with the time travel device on board, and General O'Neill?" He looked from Daniel to Teal'c and back. "Who else are we missing?"

"Nobody, sir," Walter's voice came from the control room. "All other members of the expedition team are present and accounted for."

_At least,_ thought the General.

As soon as the 'gate closed the walls jumped back to their original positions. Jack had almost made it to the chair before his arm had been caught by the wall as he passed through the doorway; he had been struggling against the pull when the wall stopped sucking him in. Losing his balance at the abrupt release, Jack fell over, barely missing the chair with his head.

He looked around and was surprised to see that everything was back to normal, of course all the computers and papers were on the floor at all angles, and then there was Sam. She was unconscious on the floor beside the console where she had been working.

Jack jogged over to her; she was breathing shallowly, but her heartbeat was barely there when he pressed his fingers to her neck. "Sam?" He asked at a whisper. "Sam!" He asked again, louder. He was getting no response, then he lost the pulse altogether. "SAM?" He held his hand above her mouth, but the breath had left her. Panicking, he began CPR.

"One, two, three, four, five," Jack breathed into her lungs. On any other occasion, being this close to Sam would have been awkward, but he wasn't thinking about anything other than reviving her. "Sam," he said as he began pushing on her chest again, "you're not allowed to die… that's an order."

It seemed to work, Sam began to come around again; her eyes fluttered and she spluttered a bit before passing out again. "SAM!" She was awake then. She grabbed onto his arm and looked around wildly from her position flat on the floor. "Sam?" His voice was calmer, making her calmer as well.

"Sir, what…?" She stammered. "What happened?"

"The walls ate you," he said, smiling with relief.

"What?" She hurt all over. Her chest hurt where the General had been pressing on it, her lungs ached and her head was spinning. The last thing she could remember was looking down at the console and realizing that she hadn't stopped whatever Felger had started, instead she had just turned the alarm, or rather the countdown, off. She had called out to let Jack know when she felt something cold grabbing her and surrounding her. After that it was all dark and airless, her lungs had burned and she had felt like she was going to be violently ill before she passed out.

Jack didn't explain more, instead he took off his jacket and rolled it up, lifting her head, he stuck it underneath. Sam returned the hand that had been holding Jack's forearm to her side, worry and confusion muddling her features.

"Sir, what…?" She asked again but she was shushed immediately. Jack began checking her over for injuries and found none, relieved he sat down next to her, sighing as his knees stretched out properly. _I'm too old to squat down like that for so long._ He thought, decidedly not thinking about why he had been squatting over his former 2IC.

Sam woke up a few hours later, sitting bolt upright and regretting it immediately. Lying back down slowly she smiled at the worried look Jack was giving her. "Good to see you're awake," he said. He came over and sat down next to her, folding his legs underneath him in a very un-General-like manner.

"What happened… exactly?" She asked, looking around. Jack had moved her closer to the 'gate, as far as possible from any of the walls.

"I'm not sure, when we dialed the 'gate the walls attacked us."

"How do we know it was the 'gate that triggered the reaction?"

"Because," he explain, a smug look settling onto his face to be explaining something to her, "when I started dialing back right after you went to sleep and the walls started eating things again, only a lot faster. It's a good thing I moved as close to the 'gate as I did or you'd have been eaten up again."

"Oh."

"Yeah, looks like we're stuck here till you can shut it off," Sam closed her eyes for a second, that was the last thing she wanted to do right now. She tried to take deep breaths and think about it but her ribs hurt from the General's zealous CPR.

"Do we have any aspirin?" She finally asked, opening her eyes again. Jack turned around and disappeared into the jumper, reemerging a moment later with the first aid kit. He pulled out the pills and handed her a bottle of water.

After the headache passed Sam was up and about, looking at the console and trying to figure out what had happened. As usual, Jack just watched. He was very wary of the walls, staying as far away from them as he could, and watching Sam carefully whenever she went near them.

Finally, Sam had something to report. She went in the jumper and found Jack lying on one of the benches tossing a roll of gauze he'd found in the first aide kit towards the ceiling. "Ach," he said as she entered, throwing off his groove and causing the gauze to land on the other side of the time device. "Carter?" He asked her, looking up intently.

"Okay, so far as I can tell it _was_ Felger that set this whole thing off…"

"I'm going to shoot him."

"… whether he meant to or not. It looks like he set the entire outpost on alert. I turned the alarms off but the rest of the program was still running. When I was trying to access the databanks earlier, the base saw it as a threat because it was already on alert. I guess the Ancients that left this outpost were really paranoid about their research being seen by unfit eyes."

"So, can you fix it?" Sam wouldn't make eye contact, never a good sign. "Colonel?"

"No, sir. You can try the control chair but I'm not sure that will work either. The systems are all so old and have been dormant for so long that they're not working right. There's nothing I can do because if I tried to pry off the paneling and fix the wires the walls would go crazy again," she shifted a little before looking the General in the eyes. "I'm sorry, sir, but we might be here for awhile."

"I'm going to shoot Felger," he told her again as he walked over to the chair, it was the one part of the complex that could be touched without making the walls hungry.

Half an hour later Jack was tired of sitting in the chair and getting nowhere. Sam was sitting on the step leading up to the platform the chair was on, waiting to hear about his progress, or lack thereof. He hopped out of the chair and sat down next to her with a groan. "Nothing?" She asked.

"Nope," he shook his head. "I can't access the program, I don't know why." He shrugged. Sam sighed, looking over at the jumper that had become their home. They had used the blankets in the emergency pack on board to make pillows, effectively turning the benches into uncomfortable beds. They used the time device as a table, it was safely offline. The thing that worried Sam was their food supply. They had plenty of ration bars but they would run out eventually, and she wasn't sure she could stand the taste of another one; they were running very low on water too. "Hey, Sam?" He asked after a few minutes had passed in silence.

"Yes, sir?"

"Can we use the time device to get out of here?" She shrugged; he watched as her mind went from idly worrying about their problems to actively solving them.

"I'm not sure…" Sam responded, getting up and walking towards the jumper. He could hear her shifting the food off the time device and moving other things around.

Sam came out of the jumper a few hours later carrying a pair of ration bars and looking miserable. "No luck?" He asked as she approached, she shook her head in reply, handing him one of the bars.

"I don't have the right tools here to get the time device to hook back into the jumper properly. We could just semi plug it in, but we wouldn't be able to control when we went."

"Anytime is better than here... now, whatever."

"I almost agree, sir, but we wouldn't be able to get back either," she pointed out. _Always a step ahead of me._ He smirked. She unwrapped the bar with a sick look on her face that would've made Jack laugh if he hadn't felt the same way about the bar he was about to eat.

They'd been stuck in the outpost for a week when they finally came to a decision, they had to try anything. They had about two more days' worth of water left and enough of the bars left for three. Unfortunately they were both fresh out of ideas.

Dialing the 'gate and driving the jumper through at top speed wouldn't work, the tail end would get stuck in the walls. They'd spent most of the last few days exploring the outpost, it had a similar layout to Atlantis, only smaller; they'd looked for anything that would afford them an escape but nothing had caught their attention.

"Can't we just fly the jumper through the ceiling or something?" Jack asked, half joking, half wanting to know if it would really work.

A week ago, Sam wouldn't even have considered the option, but after a week on ration bars and stale-tasting water she was ready to try anything. They began searching the outpost again, this time looking for skylights that the jumper could get to without touching the walls.

After hours of searching they had their first lucky moment. Jack had found a large chamber with a humongous glass dome over the top. He'd been lucky that he'd been able to get to it too; he'd touched the panel by the door to open it up without thinking. After he was inside he realized what could've happened and decided not to tell Sam that the door had been closed.

They packed up quickly, and were both in the jumper only ten minutes after discovering the room. Jack went painstakingly slow, making sure not to touch the walls. They both got nervous as they got closer.

Finally, the jumper emerged into the open hall. They looked at each other before Jack began their ascent.

They began slowly, then faster as they approached the glass dome. Looking closely, Sam could see patterns, stained glass. _Thank God for the decorative flair._ She though.

The entire complex seemed to sense that they were about to escape, like it wanted to respond but couldn't yet. They both held their breath and Jack accelerated suddenly.

The glass shattered and they soared upward.

Below them the outpost rumbled, visibly shaking. The glass fell inwards and then shot out again, accelerated by the outward explosion of the walls. They could see more windows break down the length of the complex, suddenly the walls receded. The rapidity of all this was too much for the old structure, it fell in on itself; crashing and leaving a pile of rubble and a dust cloud behind.

They looked through the front window, surprised, to say the least.

The entire outpost had been eliminated in a cloud of dust because of its own walls. Jack couldn't help but smile, glad to be out of the stuffy old-smelling corridors. He looked over at Sam, hoping to receive a smile in return, but, instead, was greeted by a crease in her forehead.

"The 'gates gone," she said simply. She was right. They were now trapped on a planet without an accessible stargate.

They circled the planet numerous times, looking for civilization, another stargate, anything. On what they had decided to be their final try they found a small town in a tropical zone.

The village seemed to be a few hundred years behind Earth's technological level. The houses were all raised off the ground, presumable to avoid flooding in the wet season, and were built against trees. Surrounding the houses, and under some of them, were what appeared to be stalls such as the ones you would find in a fair or marketplace. The place was bustling, full of life.

As they moved away from the village, going to park and investigate, a noise came from the back section of the jumper. Exchanging a worried glance, Sam rushed to the back to see what was wrong. "Sir!" She called up, "you should probably land the jumper!"

"What?"

"The work that I did trying to get the time device to work is shorting out, it's threatening to overload the system and bring to whole jumper down. We need to cut power!"

Jack landed the jumper in the forest directly below them, they were a few miles from the village and the forest was thick enough so that the jumper would probably go unnoticed. Just to be safe, they tore down branches hid it anyways.

Hunters carried their game into the village from the forest, bringing it to their wives to cook and prepare. Women were all over the village, washing, mending, sitting in circles and talking; men sat with them and talked with them, some even helped with the chores. The village appeared to be peaceful; the only weapons in sight were knives of varying sizes, and bow and arrows for hunting. Deciding to take their chances, they walked into the village.

All of the villagers stopped what they were doing when Sam and Jack walked, unceremoniously, from the surrounding forest. Children fled to their parent's sides, a teenage boy ran off into the city and brought back a group of older men, all talking fast.

"Hi!" Jack said cheerily, addressing the man who seemed to lead the group that had approached. The man looked them both over warily. They'd left their weapons in the jumper, taking only the knives, which had been hidden away.

The leader was shorter than either of them, but taller than most of the gathering crowd. Like the others, he had darkish skin and closely cropped hair, looking around; they realized that nobody's hair fell below their shoulders. The leader had small, dark eyes, and a large nose with a leathery, wrinkled face. He was wearing loose cloth pants that fell around open sandals; his shirt was loose too but ornately decorated, more so than any of the others. He also wore a band around his head that was bright purple, contrasting his silvery hair.

"Hi," Jack said again, not so self-assured this time. Finally, the man spoke.

"Greetings," his voice was solemn and low pitched, reminding them of Teal'c. "I am called Wynand."

"Hello," Sam said, hoping she wasn't breaking any customs, however she was less likely to say something offensive. "My name is Colonel Sam Carter."

"I'm General Jack O'Neill," Jack supplied. Wynand nodded his head in greeting to both of them.

"Where do you come from?" He asked. _So much for diplomacy,_ Sam thought, _this guy gets right to the point._

"Really far away," Jack explained.

"Are you travelers of the Lost Village?" Wynand asked, failing to mask the excitement in his voice.

"Yes, I think so," Sam said, saying the last part of her sentence more to Jack than to Wynand. With her reply came cheers from the crowd.

"We had not thought anybody had survived, it has been so long!" Wynand said, he looked like he was about to hug them.

The days soon turned into weeks, and neither Sam nor Jack felt any need to leave the village. The villagers had accepted them open heartedly as travelers from across the ocean, showing pity when the pair of them told of the outpost's destruction. "We are sorry that you have lost your home," Wynand said sympathetically. "We hope that you will stay in our village with us?"

Sam and Jack had accepted the offer, not knowing what else to do. They had nowhere to go; the 'gate was buried and they had no way of repairing the jumper. The best that they could do was get comfortable and hope against hope that they would be rescued, not that they minded living with Wynand's people. The village was very tolerant of their lack of knowledge of their customs, finding it entertaining to instruct them as though they were children.

After three weeks had passed, Wynand surprised them with a house of their own. He explained that the woman who had lived there had died in her old age weeks before they had arrived, almost as though it was meant to be. The entire village showed up, bringing housewarming gifts and food to stock the pantry. Sam and Jack were overwhelmed, but definetly relieved to be moving out of Wynand's house, he was a kindly host but his wife, Ashaya, seemed to be the head of the local gossip circle and since their arrival it had focused on them.

That night the shock of recent events finally settled in; it wasn't enough that they'd spent the past few weeks lost and alone, but now to be taken in so warmly by strangers was something else still. The house was beautiful but small. Twelve steps led from the ground to the level of the house on stilts. The door opened up on a sitting room complete with couches chairs for sitting and talking. A fireplace was on the wall that the sitting room shared with the kitchen, half of the fireplace was in the sitting room, the other in the kitchen for cooking on. The kitchen contained a table with three chairs around it, as well as an assortment of cooking supplies genuine to the area. The house was completed by a bathroom and a single bedroom with a huge bed loaded down with pillows and blankets. It was the softest thing either had ever sat on. In one corner of the bedroom was part of the trunk of the tree that supported the house, its branched stretching out to support the thatched ceiling.

Knowing that the evening would turn out to be awkward enough, Sam started making dinner over the small fire they had going; it was much too hot to be cooking by fire, but they didn't really have a choice.

About a half an hour later they were sitting at the small table eating the local version of a chicken and vegetables. It wasn't half bad, but the house was very hot from the fire. "So…" Jack started after he'd finished.

"So," Sam responded.

"What happens now?" Sam shrugged in response. Again, they were alone on this strange planet.

A few hours later the house was completely dark and the pair of them were still sitting on the couch, talking quietly about recent events, and the village customs. One of these customs was saving all the candles for the winter months, meaning there was nothing they could do about the dark.

"So, um…" Sam started awkwardly, "I'll take the couch."

"No, I will," Jack retorted, as expected.

"Are you sure, sir? I don't have any problems with…"

"No, Carter," he cut her off. "Bring me out a couple of pillows and I'll be just fine."

"Yes, sir," she did as she was told

By the end of the next week they were more comfortable with their situation, or at least as comfortable as they could be. Jack made friends with the hunters, eventually going along with them to bring back food, which Sam would cook. While Jack was off hunting Sam would stay around the village and talk with the women, who often dropped by their house in large groups bearing gifts to make their 'house into a home' as they put it.

"Sam, I'm back!" Jack said, coming through their door carrying three large chicken-like animals. They were birds with long, bright orange, scaly legs, a short orange beak, and bright green plumage covering everywhere else. Jack had become quite proficient with the bow and arrows he'd been given.

"Hi, sir," Sam said, laughing at a joke one of the women in the house had told, behind her a small group of women laughed along.

"Ladies," Jack greeted the rest of the house. Jack went into the kitchen and put the bird on the counter, Sam joined him a few seconds later. The women called their goodbyes from the doorway, Sam and Jack waved and began preparing the birds. It was a disgusting process, but if they didn't do it and get the birds cooked they'd start to smell.

"How was hunting?" She asked, making a pile of bright green feathers next to her.

"Oh, fine, Wynand got a big cow-like thing. It moved really slowly, but when we got close to help him chop it up to carry it home…" he smiled to himself, "it had _fangs_," Sam chuckled, trying to imagine a cow with fangs. "Anyways, he gave me a cut of it; we can have it for dinner."

"Alright, sir," Sam agreed, he pulled a moist-looking slab of meat out of the bag he had brought with him. It looked like a normal enough portion of beef, it was pinkish brown and wrapped in a few leaves. Sam took the meat, leaving the bird sit while she pulled the leaves away and began slicing the meat.

They continued working in silence for a few minutes before Jack turned around to face her. "Sam?" He asked quietly, she didn't turn around but her shoulders stiffened a little, she hadn't missed the personal tone of his voice.

"Yes, sir?" He sighed.

"When are you going to stop calling me sir?" She shrugged in response, finally turning around. She wiped her hands off and tossed him the towel when she'd finished with it.

"I don't know…"

"I just don't think its something we need to… I don't know, keep up," he shifted nervously. "We're stuck here, Sam, and…"

"I get it, sir," she said, looking sheepish at her slip. "Sorry."

Jack smiled. "You know," he started, turning back to the bird behind him, "Wynand thinks we're married."

"What?"

"Well, actually, he asked if we would like to be formally mated in their culture; assuming we were already mates in our own village."

"What did you say?"

"I said we weren't together like that," he responded without any signs of hesitation.

"Oh…" Sam said. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. She knew that her feeling toward him hadn't changed since the zay'tarc incident oh so many years ago, but she would never admit it to Jack. If his feelings had changed she didn't want to face it, even though he'd hinted that he still felt something for her when her dad had died.

Jack had stopped his work on the second bird and was watching Sam without fully turning around. In fact, Wynard hadn't asked him if they'd like to be mated, he'd asked if either of them had had mates; he had said no, and asked why. Wynard had explained that it had been assumed that they were together when they came, but that he'd gotten many inquiries by various village members who had an interest.

They were quiet while they finished preparing the meat. The birds were set to stew in a large pot on the fire while they putted the fanged-cow meat in a pan and set it near the fire to slow cook for dinner. Since it was so hot in the house when the fire was going they decided to go and walk around the shops, bringing a few things to trade. The shops were run by the elderly and those who didn't have anybody to hunt for them. The villagers traded meat and other foodstuffs for artwork, spices, and anything else that the shopkeepers made or found.

To their surprise, Wynand hadn't been lying when he'd talked about the inquiries in their relationship. Walking out of the house they were immediately aware that Ashaya had gotten the word out as soon as she'd heard it. Eyes turned in their direction, mostly young men, Jack noted. A few drifted towards them as the walked down the steps.

"Okay, I'll get those spices that were so good sautéed with the vegetables last night if you find something to make the sitting room more interesting," she said, glancing up at her former CO. He was looking at the slowly approaching men, deciding how to react; Sam hadn't noticed them yet.

"Okay, I'll meet you back here later," he walked off in the direction of the shops that sold the artwork, deciding not to think about the men approaching Sam. _I'll just see how she deals with them first,_ he decided, not really liking his idea.

As soon as he left Sam looked around at the approaching men, they had quickened their pace once they saw Jack leave, in her mind she begged him to come back. She decided to ignore them, walking in the direction of the spice shops.

"Hello," said a voice behind her as she trades some of the meat she'd brought with her for the spice she knew Jack liked. She turned around to see a man, about her age, and almost her height.

"Hi," she responded, wishing Jack was there.

"My name is Hyamin," he smiled.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Sam Carter."

"Why do you have two names?

"Why do you only have one?" Maybe if she was really annoying he'd go away and she could go find Jack.

"I asked first," Sam was somewhat taken aback at the response, _I thought that was an Earth catchphrase…_then she realized this was one of the hunters who had befriended Jack.

"My first name is what people call me, my second name is my family name," she explained.

"Why does Jack call you by your family name?"

"Because it's what he's always done…"

"Why?"

"Because we're in the military and that's what you do there."

"They allow women in the military in the Lost Village?"

"Yes, they did, why wouldn't they?"

"Women do the cooking and bear children, it is a man's place to protect what is his," Sam decided she didin't like Hyamin.

"Have a pleasant day, Hyamin," she told him, the traditional goodbye of the village. She jogged back to the house, avoiding the main aisles of shops and not making eye contact. Back at the house, Sam was disappointed to find that Jack had brought home a visitor, a woman.

"Hi, Sam. This is Razi," he smiled innocently, watching her face go into an emotional mask, _hiding what?_ He wondered. Had he seen a flicker of jealousy or was that just wishful thinking?

"Good to meet you, Razi," Sam said, trying to be friendly.

"You as well," Razi was very pretty. She was short and slender with light brown eyes and her hair was short and curly. Sam was numb; she hadn't expected to be jealous of anybody, especially not on an expedition to study an Ancient outpost.

** well, here it is, thank you for the reviews! i hope i can live up to your expectations, if not feel free to make suggestions! **


	3. Chapter 3

Sam stayed in her room for the rest of the day, she didn't go out when she smelled whatever Jack had made for dinner, especially not when she heard voices in the kitchen. She couldn't believe how much it hurt. _I had Pete, its not fair that I should get to have a relationship if he can't,_ she told herself, feeling guilty. The thought didn't change the way she felt.

It was late and everything was quiet in the house. Sam pulled her door open, glancing around the kitchen. Nobody was there, but Jack had left a plate of dinner out for her. Sam crossed the room and picked up the plate, not sure what to think. _At least he didn't forget that I exist._ She thought, it wasn't a comforting thought though.

"Sam?" Jack's was sitting in the dark beyond the doorway, he was in a chair and perfectly awake. She had expected him to be asleep on the couch… or off somewhere with Razi. She sat down at the table and began picking at the cold food, ignoring her forme CO.

Jack came into the room and sat across from her. "Are you okay?" Concern was written all over his face, she could even see it in the dark.

"I'm fine," she told him calmly, almost coldly.

"Are you sure, you were in there for a long time…?"

"I'm fine, sir."

"I thought we'd agreed to drop that," Sam didn't respond. "What's wrong, Sam?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," she scooped as much as she could onto the fork and put it in her mouth. It was good even though it had gone cold long ago.

"Carter…" He sighed, reverting to her surname in his agitation. She was glaring at him from across the table, something he hadn't expected; he could see jealousy in her eyes for a split second, then it was masked again. "You're jealous!"

"No I'm not," she said defensively, the General was grinning now.

"You're jealous!" He repeated, trying to think of why she would be jealous. "Sam, why are you jealous?" His tone was softer, like he was trying to understand instead of make fun of her. Her glare intensified and she shoved another forkful of food into her mouth. She gagged on the food, losing all composure and cursing herself for it. A few seconds later she realized that she couldn't breathe, a piece of food had lodged itself in her windpipe.

Sam realized she was choking shortly after Jack did, she looked across the table for help but he was gone, panicking she looked around and found him already at her side. He pulled her towards him and began doing the Heimlich. The piece of meat came out and Sam spluttered and coughed before turning to look at Jack again; he hadn't moved even after she'd stopped choking, his arms were still around her. It seemed to have a calming effect because the glare she had been planning to give him turned in to a look of gratitude. "Thank you, sir."

"No more sir," he ordered, he stepped back, but barely. Sam swallowed a few times and cleared her throat. "Why are you jealous?" It was impossible to tell if he was being serious or not. She sat back down and took another, much smaller, bite.

"When did Razi leave?" Sam asked a short while later, her dinner was almost done and Jack still hadn't moved.

"Right after dinner, she brought spices… lots of spices," he pointed to one of the countertops. It was loaded down with multicolored spices in varying sizes of jars. Sam had to hold back a laugh and almost choked again.

"Wow."

"Yeah, I don't know if we'll ever get through them all…"

"It wont be for lack of time…"

"Sam…" he started, moving close again. "I don't get it, what happened today?" Sam got shifty again.

"I don't want to leave it in that room anymore…" Sam said, almost too quietly for him to hear, but he did.

"Sam…" She looked up at him defensively. He smiled a little, "I don't want to leave it there either."

Before they knew what they were doing the regulations had gone out the window.

The Asgard had finally made contact after numerous requests of the SGC. Now, a hologram of Thor stood in the briefing room surrounded by Landry and SG1. "I was not aware that the planet you visited housed an Ancient outpost. I will personally make the journey to do what I can for General O'Neill and Colonel Carter; the Asgard have been preparing to contact the pair of them anyways," Thor did not elaborate on his statement.

"Thank you Thor," Landry said as the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet beamed himself back aboard his ship.

**This is probably going to be the last update for awhile, sorry it's so short! I hope you're all liking it so far, please R&R, I'm very open to suggestions!**


	4. Chapter 4

Sam lay on the bed; cozy in Jack's sleeping arms. It had been amazing, and they had made a mess. Most of the spices that Razi had brought had ended broken on the floor in the kitchen and most of the pillows lay on the floor of the bedroom. She was too nervous to sleep; _what happens now?_ Was all she could think. Her usually quick mind that had come up with answers to innumerable other, much more complex, problems, but she was having trouble concentrating. _He's lying behind me right now and we just…_ she was too happy to think.

Teal'c and Daniel had been beamed aboard Thor's ship seconds after Thor had left, to the slight annoyance of Mitchell and Vala. "Aren't you forgetting something!" Mitchell had yelled at the ceiling, addressing Thor. "We're part of SG1 now too!"

Despite his rather loud attempts to convince the alien that he and Vala deserved to come too they were both left in the briefing room with nothing to do. "Well, Mitchell; now you can catch up on those reports!" Landry joked, knowing full well that Mitchell was one of the most up to date officers when it came to paperwork; he had even brought his laptop along when SG1 and Landry had visited General O'Neill's cabin not long ago.

"So, now what do we do?" Vala asked him as they walked out of the briefing room towards Mitchell's office. The colonel shrugged.

"I have no idea."

To their credit, Daniel and Teal'c were making the case for Mitchell and Vala aboard Thor's ship. "C'mon Thor!" Daniel pleaded, "Mitchell's the CO now, he's not going to be very happy if we leave him sitting at the SGC."

"Unfortunately we are already out of range," Thor said, not sounding as though he found their distance 'unfortunate.'

"Where are we going?" Teal'c asked, turning to look at the navigational computer even though it was too complicated for anyone of SG1 except for Sam, and even she sometimes was confused by it.

"We are going to the planet on which General O'Neill and Colonel Carter have been stranded," Thor explained.

"How long will that take?" Daniel inquired.

"Several days."

"Great."

"Indeed."

Things had moved incredibly quickly for Sam and Jack. Wynard and his people had noticed their change toward each other almost immediately, most seemed to be happy for them. They had only lived among the people for a few weeks and they already felt as though they had been there for years.

Razi had stopped by only once more, Sam had made it clear that she was not welcome and Jack hadn't even come out of the bedroom. _The coward. _Sam had thought, though she had done the same when Hyamin had come to visit.

"Let's go for a walk," Jack suggested randomly one morning two days after 'they' had begun.

"Okay," Sam wasn't sure what he had in mind. Smiling she asked, "Where to?"

"Well, there's this huge forest right outside our back wall…" He smiled his lopsided smile, making Sam smile back.

They left the house, hand in hand, and walked through the village they had finally begun to call home. The village was very alive, even in the early hours of the morning; the sun was just rising above the tree line and illuminating the bright colors of the shop tents, while shading the trees into leafy silhouettes. The villagers greeted them with smiles and hellos, except for Razi, who made a beeline in the opposite direction when she saw them coming.

The forest was peaceful, the dew wet their feet through the sandals they wore, having adopted the village's traditional dress after a week or so; they had become closer to the villagers after they had worn the villager's clothes in a strange way that simple similarities draw people together. Ignoring the cold on their feet, they made their way into the forest at a leisurely pace, not really going in any particular direction. Suddenly, they happened upon the jumper.

"Wow, I forgot about this!" Sam said, pulling one of the branches away to look at the small ship.

"No way! Sam forgets about a techno-doohickey and I don't! You've really let yourself go," He smiled at her, joining her front of the jumper and pulling away another branch so he could see inside.

"_There's_ my radio!" He exclaimed after his eyes had adjusted to looking into the darkness. "I've been wondering where that'd got too, yours is in that bin with the rest of our old stuff," he said 'old stuff' as though the things in the bin were part of another life altogether.

Replacing the branches on the window they moved around to the back of the jumper and pulled the branches away allowing the back hatch to open. Jack grabbed the radio and turned it on habitually. There was no static; he glanced at Sam, she was looking at the radio thoughtfully. _Of course 'thoughtfully',_ Jack smiled to himself, _when does Sam ever _not_ think about things?_

"Where's the static?" He asked her after a few seconds, hoping she had some sort of idea by then; instead she shrugged.

"I'm not sure… the only reason there wouldn't be static is if somebody were sending a signal to this radio, and… unless somebody in the village turned mine on…" She sank back into thought and he let her. It was unlikely that anybody was playing with her radio in the village. The villagers had been wary of their clothes and devices, pressuring them to change into the loose fashions they all sported; this had been fine by the pair of them, it was a tropical area and it was _hot_.

They walked back in silence, Sam trying to find a solution to the lack of static, and Jack letting her think; he was just enjoying walking hand in hand with her.

They made their way slowly back to their house. Sam didn't say much, but Jack stopped to talk to villagers along the way. The top gossip was that a certain couple would be wed soon and everybody wanted to hear Jack and Sam's take; Jack innocently said that he hadn't heard anything about any weddings. Smiling to himself and pulling Sam closer by way of their conjoined hands, they made the rest of the way back to their house.

Back at their house, Sam immediately searched the bin full of their old things for her radio. Puzzled when she didn't find it on, she turned it on. No static on that one either. "Jack, this is really weird! This shouldn't be happening!"

"Could it just be this planet or something?"

"No, because then the radios would've done this when we were inside the outpost."

"Oh… Well, maybe the outpost was protected or something…?"

"I'm going to try to boost our signal…" Sam trailed off and started taking the radios apart. Jack kissed her on the top of her head and wandered off into their house to make something to eat, as he usually did when Sam started playing with her 'toys.'

Daniel was bored out of his mind; Thor had nothing entertaining on his ship. Teal'c was in a state of kel-no-reem and Daniel didn't want to bother him. He'd tried to kel-no-reem himself in the early hours of their trip but he hadn't been able to concentrate. Jack and Sam had been gone for almost three months and now they were getting them back! Plus, Thor had mentioned that he had already been trying to get in contact with the pair of missing Air Force officers, though he hadn't said anything about why, though Daniel had tried to get it out of him. Finally, he had resorted to walking around the ship again and again and again, wishing the Asgard had libraries aboard their ships and playing with his radio.

"Got it!" Sam yelled, running into the kitchen, surprising Jack.

"What?" His mouth was full and he was halfway between sitting and standing, having begun to rise when he heard her yell.

"The signal, somebody's hailing us!" She was ecstatic.

"What?"

"On the radio, Jack!" She was so excited she leaned forward and pecked him on his lips, even though his mouth was full of his snack

"Oh, good," he said, not really thinking about it and swallowing his bite. "Wait, what?"

"Somebody is within range of our radios and they're trying to contact us!" Sam was practically dancing. She loved the life they were living together on this planet in the quaint little village, but she missed her friends and family and the SGC and the things Jack called her 'toys.' Jack seemed to be displaying the same emotions, happy at the prospect of going home, but sad at the same time; he'd miss the village and the freedom they had there. And 'them.'

"Hello?" Sam said into the radio. "Can anybody hear me?" She waited, getting the same lack of static, then she would've sworn she almost heard a voice before static crackled over the line. "Hello! This is Lt. Colonel Sam Carter! Can anybody hear me?"

"Sam?" The signal was extremely weak and the voice was barely audible but Jack recognized it anyway.

Grabbing the radio from Sam he jammed the button down, "Daniel!"

"Jack?"

"Hi!"

"Hi!"

"How've you been?"

"Good, are you guys all right?"

"We're fine!"

"What?"

"We're fine!"

"I'll see if I can boost the signal any better…" Sam said, taking the radio from him and twisting wires around and connecting it to the antenna of the other radio as well.

"Hello? Hello? Jack, Sam?" Daniel's voice was worried. "Aw, crap. Thor! I had them but now they're gone… Hello!"

"Thor?"

"Hello?"

"We're still here Daniel!"

"Good."

"Where are you?"

"On Thor's ship."

"I got that."

"Oh, we're coming to get you!"

"When will you be here?"

"I don't know… Thor…" his voice faded when he turned to talk to Thor. "Less than a day."

"Good!"

"Are you still at that outpost? What happened, did everything turn out okay?"

"We left the outpost after it finished going crazy on us but it collapsed and the stargate is gone. We flew the jumper halfway around the planet and found a village where we've been living."

"Sorry, Jack I didn't catch half of that. These radios aren't working very well."

"Well they're only meant for a distance of a few miles! I'd say they're doing okay," Sam commented grumpily.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Can you repeat that?"

"No, we'll talk when you get here, okay?"

"Sorry, I can't hear you at all anymore; we'll be there soon anyway. Talk to you then."

"Okay," he and Sam exchanged a smile. The radio buzzed static and Jack clicked it off.

"Jack…" Sam asked, standing closer to him than usual.

"Hmm?"

"What are we going to do?"

"I do believe we have a wedding to attend tonight," he smiled, pulling her into a hug.

"No, I mean… after we get back to Earth. To the SGC and the Pentagon and regulations…"

"I hadn't thought about it. Technically I'm not your CO anymore…"

"Yeah, but I'm still in your direct chain of command."

"True, but that's not as bad as being your CO; rules can be bent a little here and there, Sam."

"Like you need to tell _me_ that," she reciprocated his hug and it quickly turned into more.

**Sorry, updates are going to be short and more spaced out now that classes have started... I hope you're all liking it, I'm still open to suggestions if you have any ideas for where the story should go :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry this is so short, I'm working on the next chapter already, just though I'd put this up to keep you busy :)**

Mitchell had finally found something to keep himself amused by, though this activity was quickly loosing its charm. Mark, Sam's brother, and his best friend Pete, Sam's former fiancé, had shown up at the SGC. Apparently, Sam had planned to spend the downtime SG1 was supposed to be on with her brother. When she hadn't answered her phone or her door he had found the spare key and let himself in, discovering that she wasn't home. He'd called around and discovered that Sam had missed quite a few appointments in the past few weeks.

Naturally, he was worried. He had used all of his available resources to find his sister, including his best friend. Even though Sam had dumped him, Pete Shananhan still cared enough to try and help his friend find his ex. Pete had immediately suspected that she was on a mission that had carried over the expected time, but he knew better than to tell Mark. Instead, he had brought his friend to the SGC where they had waited in the parking lot for somebody to come ask them what they wanted.

"Isn't that Sam's ex?" Mitchell had asked, looking over the shoulder of the airman in the security room. He and Vala had gone there with Landry as soon as the situation had been called to their attention. After referencing the database the airman at the controls had confirmed that it was Sam's ex-fiancé and her brother.

"What are they doing here?" Vala asked.

"That Pete guy knows about the Stargate Program, right?"

"Yes he does, Colonel, but her brother doesn't…"

"Wait a minute, Sam's ex-boyfriend knows about the SGC but her brother doesn't even though their Dad was a Tok'ra?" Vala butted in, Mitchell nodded confirmation and Landry continued, giving Vala a dirty look.

"Colonel I want you to go talk to them, find out what they want, report back to me. Do not tell her brother about the Stargate, the SGC or anything else. We study deep space radio telemetry. If the boyfriend keeps pressing bring him in to security and I'll meet you at the front desk."

"Yes, sir," he turned and headed toward the surface, Vala in tow.

"Vala!" Landry called after her.

"What?" She spun around, still walking backwards in an attempt to 'miss' what he said.

"Why don't you stay here, let Mitchell handle this one himself…" With a sigh, Vala returned to the security room and watched Mitchell waiting in the elevator on his way to the surface.

/\

"I have located the Ancient ship you told me they had with them, but there are no life signs in the vicinity. There seems to be a village several miles away, easy walking distance for both the Colonel and the General," Thor told Daniel as soon as they came into orbit around the planet. They had spotted the ruins of the outpost right away and Thor had reported the lack of life signs there with similar lack of emotion.

"Would it not be wise to search the village for O'Neill and Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked. Daniel had been trying to hail them on their radio but was having no luck, either they weren't near the radio or they had decided not to respond because they were much closer in range and Daniel was picking up their signal just fine.

"I will send you down next to their ship so that you can examine it for yourselves," Thor did just that and they appeared next to its branch-coated form several seconds later.

It was dusk, the sky turning a variety of reds, peaches, and gold above them, illuminating the trees with an eerie, golden tinge between the green. It was hot, the air damp and humid against their skin.

"Well, they're not here." Daniel observed, noting the empty jumper.

"Indeed," was Teal'c's response, and he began walking in the direction of the village Thor had pointed out. Daniel jogged to catch up and then fell in step next to his longtime friend.

The noise level grew immensely as they approached the village, it sounded like the entire village were outside dancing. When they reached the edge of the trees they realized that the entire village was out in the open center and was celebrating something. The banners that hung around a house and all over the center suggested that somebody had gotten married; Daniel got the usual spark in his eye when he realized that the banners were in a variation of Ancient. The entire village seemed to be out dancing but before the pair of them could look around a cold voice came from behind.

"Who are you?" The man speaking was short and had dark coloring and no hair. He had a bow with an arrow cocked and ready to fly, behind him were a number of bright green birds with their feet tied together, it looked as though he had dropped them to the ground to threaten the remainders of SG1.

"We're explorers…" Daniel started but he was knocked out cold by somebody behind him before he could finish his sentence. Teal'c fell to the ground next to him. The hunters picked up the birds and dragged Daniel and Teal'c along behind them by the ankles.

/\

Jack and Sam were thoroughly enjoying themselves, deliberately not thinking about Thor's ship that would pick them up in a matter of hours. They had thrown the radio back in the bin with the rest of their 'old' things and had joined the festivities after a quick celebration of their own with each other.

The wedding had been beautiful, banners coated the center and the entire village had turned up in their best dress. Sam was in a strapless blue dress that swirled around her knees when she walked. Jack had found a pair of soft, loose leather pants and a dark brown shirt that had loose sleeves, letting air flow over most of his skin even if it were covered. They fit in as well as they could, being much paler and at least a head taller than everybody else in the village.

They held each other close and swayed to the music that was coming from the strange, organ-like line of pipes at the edge of the market place. The pipes were separate from each other, each played by a different person, the overall effect sounded like an organ being played by a hand bell choir. The music that was being played was surprisingly happy for something coming out of pipes that reminded them of _The Phantom of the Opera_ and going to Church on Earth.

The ceremony was interrupted when the hunters returned with the wedding feast. At first the village reacted normally, everybody made way and shouted celebrations of the birds that had been caught, but then everybody noticed that two of the hunters also dragged men behind them.

"Is that…?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I think it is…"

**K, I'm not sure of that whole organ played by a hand bell choir thing worked but its supposed to be like each pipe is separate (like hand bells) and each person plays so well that it sounds like an organ… yeah. **

**Verago500: I hadn't even thought about the whole replacement thing! It would work as a good excuse for the pair of them… :) I was thinking that Hammond would've been pulled out of retirement temporarily to cover for Jack, so he'll get his job at the Pentagon back- but then I know nothing about the military. Anyway, I hope you'll excuse my slight deviation from reality!**

**Sangoslayer001: This is kinda supposed to be after Sam and Pete have split (thank goodness for that,) but the whole thing with Mark looking into it with Pete's help should make it interesting if I do this right!**

**Thank you all for the reviews! Keep them coming!**


	6. Chapter 6

Mark and Pete were casually leaned against the back of Mark's minivan. He'd driven it all the way from San Diego just to visit his sister, who, according to Pete, was somewhere inside the military base in front of them.

"Why don't we just go _in_?" He asked again. In response, Pete pointed to the check-in station and the huge cement doors that would have to be passed to get into the base.

"Because, there are a bunch of military people sitting in those booths staring at us right now, eventually they're going to come out to check on us," he was right. As he spoke a military officer in fatigues came out from behind the cement doors and leaned in to talk to one of the men in the booths.

Mitchell crossed the parking lot, trying to appear nonchalant, as though he was the one who was always sent out to shoo away conspiracy freaks. "Hello, boys; Colonel Mitchell, what can I do for you?"

"Where's Sam?" Mark asked, getting a glare from the corner of Pete's eye.

"Which one, there are about five different 'Sam's' that work here."

"Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter," Mark said, glaring at Mitchell.

"She's busy, _but_ if you want to give me a number she can reach you at when she's done running her simulations…."

"Bullshit," Pete said.

"Excuse me?"

"Stargate Program," Mark said a questioning not in his face.

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't know what you're talking about," Mitchell wasn't sure if Sam's brother was supposed to know this or not, but he couldn't prove the Pete had said anything or not so he couldn't push the point.

"What happened to Sam?" Mark asked worry in his voice, choosing to ignore the strange statements being made by his friend.

"Your sister is fine; she'll be calling you in a couple of hours."

"How did you know she's my sister?"

"Uhh..." Mitchell sighed, pulling the radio out of his pocket and conferring briefly with Landry. "Come with me," he said walking across the parking lot without checking to be sure they were following.

The pair of them were immediately separated, Pete was taken one direction by Mitchell, Mark followed the General.

"What happened to my sister?"

"All in time, Mr. Carter," Landry responded. They walked to the briefing room where a nondisclosure agreement waited on the table for Mark to sign.

Mark started reading the statement and glanced up at the man halfway through, "You guys must do some pretty heady stuff…" He only nodded and Mark turned back to the paper. After signing it, he looked up expectantly and received only a stern look from the General. Mitchell, having entered the room while Pete read, pushed a red button on the wall and a wall behind the window that he hadn't noticed before began to move upwards. He responded to the view with a sharp intake of breath even without knowing what the stargate was or could do.

"What the hell is that?"

"That," Mitchell paused for dramatic effect, "is the stargate"

"What the hell is that?"

"It's an alien device that was discovered in Egypt a couple of decades ago."

"And Sam…?"

"We go through it regularly."

"Why?"

"It takes us to different planets."

"What!"

"Something to do with wormholes and time and space, sometimes an alternate dimension or something. Sam's really the resident expert…"

"You're telling me, that my sister is an expert on this alien… _thing_… and she travels to different _planets_?" He didn't look convinced. "What kind of an idiot do you take me for?" Mitchell sighed and sat down; it was going to be a long day.

The wedding celebrations had stopped at the sight of the hunters dragging grown men behind them, men carrying strange-looking weapons, one with a gold symbol on his head. The one with the symbol on his head was dark like them but much taller and with huge muscles, the man pulling him was having trouble keeping up with the man pulling his paler counterpart.

"What is this?" Wynard asked, approaching the hunters.

"They were watching from the woods, with weapons," the hunter pulling Daniel responded. Wynard's face clouded with thought for a moment before he cleared his throat and spoke loud enough for the entire congregation to hear.

"Put them in separate cells."

Sam and Jack exchanged glances. Why was he being so harsh on their friends when they had been accepted into the fold so easily?

"They have interrupted a sacred ceremony; they will receive nothing until morning, when the ceremony has finished. Nobody is to think or speak of them until that time. Who knows what dangers these strangers bring, the one place they could've come from has been destroyed, its only survivors are safe with us," he smiled at Sam and Jack. He was obviously misreading their worried looks, assuming that Daniel and Teal'c were enemies of their fallen 'home' come to kill them.

The musicians took up their pipes again and blew the chords through, playing a new song. This one was louder and happier than the one before, obviously meant to redirect the crowd. Sam and Jack made their way to the side of the celebrations, planning follow the men who were carrying Daniel and Teal'c away. Wynard approached them, putting a soothing hand on Sam's shoulder.

"Do not worry yourselves on this happy night, it is a time for celebration, not a time to think about your old home, or old enemies," he smiled and went to join his wife before Sam or Jack could explain.

Not wanting to arouse suspicions, they danced to the next three songs and enjoyed a share of the feast that had been prepared before claiming fatigue and making excuses to turn in. Many lewd jokes were made and they received a few knowing winks as they made their way through the crowd, they weren't the first couple to leave but they were the tallest and most noticeable. Smiling and chuckling at the comments they went home.

As soon as they entered the house Sam began pacing. "We should go get them out tonight, Jack," she said, not missing a step. Jack sat down on their couch and watched her pace, the dress made even the stressed walking look beautiful. "There'll be no guards since nobody is supposed to even think about them, and we can talk big about how our enemies used to be skilled at escape…"

"You don't have to talk me into it," he smirked. Without wasting another moment the slipped out their bedroom window, climbing to the ground by way of the tree that supported their roof.

They walked along in the grass towards the jail-building, the one building that was at ground level, and slipped in through the side door. They were thankful that no shoes were worn in this village, it made their footfalls all the more quiet.

The jail wasn't anywhere near the market center, being farther down from the party than their own home, but they didn't speak anyways, falling on the old habit of military signals for communication.

Teal'c was alert when they approached the cells, but Daniel was still moaning in the early stages of consciousness. "DanielJackson," they heard Teal'c whisper before they had come around the corner, "Someone approaches…"

"T, how do you always do that? I thought we were being stealthy!" Jack whispered, trying to sound happy through the worry.

"General O'Neill?"

"Jack?" Daniel sat up to the sound of his lost friend's voice.

"Hi Daniel, are you okay?" Sam knelt down by the bars of her friend's cage.

'I could use some aspirin…"

"Sorry, we're a little behind on that around here."

"Damn," he cursed, holding his head. Jack was rooting around the building for some keys and found none.

"Well, looks like the guys that brought you down here took the keys with them. Time for plan B," he looked at Sam awaiting plan B.

"Why do I always have to come up with plan B?"

"'Cause you're smart like that," Jack informed her. He took her hand and squeezed it slightly, surprising their teammates, though Teal'c didn't react.

Sam sighed and looked around. Eventually she found what she was looking for and was able to pick the lock of Teal'c's cell. She gave him a hug before moving on to Daniel's door. "Is there anything you _can't_ do?" Jack asked her.

"I'm not a very good gardener," Sam said, helping Daniel to his feet.

"I thought you talked to your plants?" Daniel asked, smiling and weaving slightly from the headache.

"She probably bores them to death talking about wormholes or particle mass…" Sam gave him a playful push, again startling Daniel and Teal'c.

"So… You guys seem to be doing okay after all this time…" Daniel said, watching them exchange a glance and separate slightly.

"We're alright," Jack responded, putting up his 'brave soldier' mask.

Sam locked the cell doors behind them, tossing her tools around the room. The four of them slipped out the side door again, moving silently into the night. They climbed carefully up the tree leading to their bedroom, Sam was as careful to go up last as she had been to go down first, keeping her short dress in mind. Coming through the window Sam could tell Daniel was making Jack uncomfortable and enjoying it.

"Only one bed, Jack?" Teal'c had his eyebrow raised and Daniel's eyes were swimming with laughter.

"ShuddupDaniel…"

"What?"

"So, are we leaving tonight or what's the plan?" Sam distracted her friends; Daniel seemed to remember that his comments had implied Sam and got embarrassed, the little blue dress didn't help either.

"Let's make it look like they kidnapped us," Jack suggested. The group agreed and they spent the next few minutes staging the act. Teal'c silently broke the window frame in the bedroom, suggesting a point of entry, while Jack shuffled the bed sheets, making them look like they had been used that night. Sam went around the house gathering things that she wanted to keep, a drawing one of the artists had done of the pair of them together from their first weeks in the village, her favorite ceramic bowl, and Jack's favorite shirt. They left their 'old' clothes because it would be suspicious if they disappeared. Daniel gave himself a tour of the house, enjoying the culture even if it was his friends' house.

"Daniel when we get back I'll tell you anything you want to know about this place, now lets _go_," even though Jack had enjoyed his time in the village he was looking forward to a hot shower and flush toilets.

Mark was in shock. His sister regularly traveled to different planets, his Dad had been part of an alien rebellion, and he didn't even want to think about 'symbiotes.' Mitchell had given him the basics, and finally talked him into believing that it was all true.

"So my sister was eaten by a wall?" Vala laughed and then looked at her hands.

"Yeah…"

"This is ridiculous, you guys travel to other planets and you can't even stop a _wall_?" It was Mitchell's turn to look at his hands.

Mark sighed; he had never even considered this possibility.

It took them twenty minutes to get to the jumper. There had been one tense moment when a scouting party had almost discovered them. Contrary to what Wynard had told the party guests, he had been thinking about the visitors and had sent out a number of search parties to locate any more of Jack and Sam's enemies that could be lurking around. They were touched, but wished he hadn't.

"Okay Thor, we're ready," Daniel said into the radio that Sam had retrieved from the bin; his had been taken away when they were tossed into the cells. Thor beamed aboard the four of them and the jumper, which was sent to a hallway in a distant part of the ship where it could take up all the room it wanted and still wouldn't be in the way.

"Greetings General O'Neill, Colonel Carter."

"Hi Thor," they responded in unison. He gave them an odd look that neither of them could place before turning to the controls.

"It will take us several days to arrive at Earth; I would suggest you make yourselves comfortable."

"Will do."

The four members of the original SG1 sat together on the floor of the bridge of Thor's ship. Nobody said anything for awhile, happy to be together again at long last.

"So…" Daniel started looking between Jack and Sam. Despite their dress they appeared comfortable, not to mention comfortable with each other. "You guys got married."

"What?" Sam was shocked, "But, we didn't…"

"Daniel that wasn't _out_ wedding!" Jack said defensively. _Though I wouldn't have minded if it had been…_Unbeknownst to him, Sam was thinking along the same lines.

As they neared their destination they realized that, even though they'd spent so long apart, nothing had changed that much between them. The old friends could talk just as much about anything as they had been able to years ago when they still saw each other on a daily basis. It made them all miss their old working relationship all the more.

"General O'Neill, Colonel Carter, will you please join me on the bridge," it wasn't really a question. Thor expected them to come. Exchanging puzzled glances with their friends, the officers reported to Thor's side.

It didn't help Mark's nerves at all when the stargate activated, setting off the usual bells and whistles throughout the base. He had been sitting in General Landry's office, the only place he wasn't in the way, when it happened. Pete had been escorted back to the surface after Mitchell had given him a very vague explanation and assured him that Mark would be returned when the time came. Pete, not feeling as though it were his place to want to stay and make sure Sam returned in one piece, had left without much complaint.

Landry jumped up from behind his desk, where he had been 'reading' a report. Mark followed into the control room, watching as the stargate activated and a team came through. It was the most amazing thing he had ever seen; three people emerged carrying a fourth in between them, staff weapon blasts followed them through, though Mark didn't know that the orange and red fireballs came from a staff weapon, or what a staff weapon even looked like. He was mortified to see that the man that was being carried was bleeding in multiple places, his team didn't look very good themselves.

Doctors rushed the 'gate room, putting them on gurneys and carrying them to the infirmary at top speed. "What happened?" He croaked. Landry gave him a sidelong glance, trying to decide what to say.

"This is what we do here, Mr. Carter," he left the room. Following the doctors to the infirmary to find out what had actually happened.

Mark went and sat in the briefing room, watching the 'gate as it sat there in its vaulted chamber. He was overwhelmed, not only by the fact that the huge device in the next room created wormholes to take people to other planets, but the fact that his sister apparently went through it regularly and that people getting mortally injured was considered normal by the man in charge.

Suddenly four people appeared in front of him, he didn't recognize them at first, but then he realized that it was his sister and the three men she had introduced him to last Christmas. To his surprise, his sister was wearing a strapless blue dress, and her CO was in the strangest brown getup he'd ever seen. "Sam!" He moved to hug her but found three men standing between him and his sister. All three of them had shifted slightly to act as a shield between Sam and whoever was in the room, not realizing that it was her brother and he meant her no harm.

"Mark!" She stepped through her friends and gave him a hug, "What're you doing here?"

"Pete had me standing in the parking lot until they gave me clearance," Sam's face had fallen at the mention of her ex, nobody but Teal'c noticed the storm that surfaced in the General's eyes at the mention of the cop's name. Mark began talking a mile a minute, reminding Jack uncannily of Sam, taking Pete off his mind and bringing a smile to his face. He told Sam all about the past few days, how worried he'd been when she hadn't answered her door, Mitchell greeting them in the parking lot, not to mention the people coming through the 'gate under fire. "Where did you guys come from? I thought the only way you traveled was by the 'gate-thing?"

"Umm, Thor beamed us in…"

"Like, 'beam me up Scotty?"

"Yeah, kinda like that," Jack responded quickly, knowing that Sam would try to explain everything to her brother. Even though he could be told everything now, didn't mean that it was good to tell him.

"SG1, glad to see you're back," Landry said as he came up the stairs from the control room. Mark gave him a look, surprised at how normal Landry seemed to react to four people suddenly appearing in his briefing room.

"Sir, we're not really SG1 anymore…" Daniel said, looking at Jack, who smiled and shrugged. Mitchell and Vala walked in, noting their companions.

"Nice of you to join us," Mitchell said coldly, still a bit sore on the fact that Thor had left him behind.

"Love the dress!" Vala complimented Sam smiling, Sam blushed and adjusted it. It had seemed so comfortable in the village and now she felt extremely underdressed.

"Jack, Colonel, I want you to report to the infirmary to be checked over, briefing in one hour," Landry said, matter-of-factly. "Mr. Carter I suggest you make a stop at the commissary and find a bed somewhere, you look awful."

Mark nodded, giving his sister another hug before they headed in their separate directions. There would be enough time for questions later, and he had a lot of questions.

The checkups took longer than expected, the doctors insisted on running some of Sam's results multiple times, making both she and the General nervous. They hadn't even been exposed to any sick villagers!

The briefing went smoothly; Mark was allowed to sit in so long as he promised not to speak. Sam and Jack explained everything that had happened, leaving out the parts where they had… developed their relationship.

After the briefing Jack decided it was best if he pretended as though nothing had happened between him and Sam, he headed to the commissary look for 'real food' as he told Daniel. It was empty; lunch time had passed hours ago. The staff were clearing tables, a few smiled at him when he came in, an unexpected surprise. He filled his tray and dug in, even though it was all cold. To his surprise, Sam followed him in a few seconds later. He'd expected her to go down to her lab and catch up, or at least change, but she walked in still shoeless and in the blue dress. He hid a smile and pretended as though he hadn't noticed her enter.

"General," she sat by him.

"Carter," he glanced up, trying to organize his face into an inquiring look, and not smile like an idiot. This trick worked until she took the jello off his tray, taking his spoon too and started eating. "Hey, I was going to eat that!" He tried, but his smile told all. Sam smiled back, taking another bite of the blue stuff. He hadn't realized it, but he'd grabbed her favorite out of all the choices- she was stuck in his brain.

They ate in silence; the silence would have been comfortable only a few days ago but now, at the SGC, neither knew how to respond to each other. "So… Daniel says that Hammond is covering for you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you didn't expect them to just leave your position open did you?"

"No, just didn't think Hammond would want to take time out of his busy schedule for little old me," at Sam's questioning look he continued. "He sends me an email every week with his improved golf score and a challenge," that drew a smile.

"Do you plan on taking him up on that?"

"'Course not, I'd cream him; I've hit golf balls farther than he ever has," this brought a smile to his own face, remembering the look on the General's face when he had discovered O'Neill and Teal'c sending golf balls through the stargate. They both relaxed a little after their conversation and continued eating, ignoring the annoyed looks they were getting from the staff, who wanted to clean up and prepare to feed the masses that would be in for dinner in a few short hours.

They hadn't spoken about what Thor had told them, but Sam knew she should bring it up soon. They finished their meal and Jack handed the tray to one of the staff, getting a dirty look despite his rank. They walked out together, talking easily about their plans for the next few days; they'd been given a considerable amount of downtime and, though neither would admit it, they wanted to spend it together.

"Lets go fishing!" Jack suggested, as usual.

"Why is it that every single time we get a little leave you feel the need to fish?"

"Because its relaxing."

"Work is relaxing."

"Getting shot at by aliens and eaten by walls is relaxing?"

"No, but the kind of work you do on downtime is."

"Well this time you're coming to Minnesota and we're going fishing."

"Sir, it'd be just us; Mitchell, Vala, Daniel and Teal'c are all scheduled to go offworld tomorrow morning and that's wouldn't really be…"

"Anymore appropriate than the pair of us spending four months alone together…"

"Anyways, my brother is in town to see me, he stood in the parking lot for hours looking for me. I can't just go off to Minnesota."

"I hear Pete came too…" Sam was silent, she wasn't sure what to think about the fact that her ex-fiancé had done for her, or at least for her brother. This introduced an uneasy silence between them for the rest of the walk to Sam's lab. Normally, Jack would've made some excuse about needing to write a report and veer away, heading to his office, but he no longer had an office at the SGC.

They sat down in their customary places in Sam's lab, Sam behind her desk which had her computer and various doohickeys scattered across it, Jack pulled his favorite stool up across from her.

"Jack…?" Sam said after a few minutes, the use of his first name made his head jerk up even though she'd been using it for at least three months.

"Hmm?"

"Nevermind."

Mark had only one day left with Sam by the time they were both allowed off base. Mark was reminded of the agreement he'd signed and Sam was checked over twice more by the doctors, but they eventually made it to her house. They spent their day reminiscing, Mark enjoyed stories about various offworld adventures but gave her a little heat about her job anyways, "No wonder it didn't work out with any relationships…" He'd commented after dinner that night. That had earned him a sharp look, but she hadn't made a retort.

Jack was at Sam's house, sitting on the couch and having helped himself to the beer in her fridge, when she returned from dropping her brother off at the airport. "Hi, sir!" She said, smiling one of her truly happy smiles that were reserved only for him.

"Carter," he responded, pulling her into his arms and kissing her as soon as she closed the door behind her. Sam hugged him, sighing into his chest.

"When do we leave?" She asked, her overnight bag was already packed and sitting on her bed upstairs.

"I have two plane tickets for a flight that leaves in an hour."

"Are you kidding, we'll never get there and through all that freaking security if we left twenty minutes ago!" He smiled at her, pulling the slips of paper out of his back pocket, they were obviously not commercial flight tickets.

"Relax we've got a hop on a military flight."

"Going to Minnesota?"

"Yep."

"If you say so," she took the tickets from him and looked them over, they were sheets of folded up printer paper that the General had doodled all over.

"I made them while I waited," he explained. Sam laughed and kissed him again before going up to retrieve her bags.

The cabin was just as nice as it had been on her last visit; the lake reflected the beautiful sunset, reds and oranges dancing across the water and making the nearby trees ripple in the same hues. The first thing they did was open all of the doors and windows, regardless of the mosquitoes; the whole place needed to be aired out, "I guess I haven't been getting up here as much as I'd like…"

"It's still beautiful, Jack," she walked out and stood at the end of the dock, leaving her bag on the floor by the door.

"That's why I like it," he said, coming up behind her and circling her in his arms.

"Not the fish?"

"They don't make very good company," he said, spinning her around and kissing her again. This kiss promised much more than the tender kisses he'd given her earlier.

After a few minutes they broke apart, catching their breath. A loon called from across the lake, Sam turned around again, disentangling herself to see if she could catch a glimpse of the bird. Having no luck she turned around to seen the Jack had taken a small box out of his pocket, she froze, staring at the box.

"Sam… willyoumarryme?" He was so nervous that it all came out together. Cursing the nerves he took a tentative step close, opening the little box he'd had in his pocket since he'd arrived at her house that morning. He'd been working up the guts to ask her all day, and now seemed to be the perfect moment.

"Wh... What?"

"Will you marry me, Sam Carter?" His voice sounded confident, much more confident than he actually felt. He watched her face, she seemed to be in shock and he immediately started doubting himself. "I…"

"Yes," it was barely a whisper but Jack heard it anyways.

"What?"

"Yes, I'll marry you," it was barely any louder but the whisper sounded much more confident. His face broke into a contagious smile.

"I love you, Sam."

"I love you too, sir," she smiled at the look he gave her. "Habit," she claimed, pulling him close. He took the ring out of the box, a silver band with a sapphire and a diamond to either side, sliding it onto her finger gently. "I love you so much…" He pulled her into an embrace, letting the ring box fall from his hand and land dangerously close to the edge of the dock.

They disappeared into the cabin after that and didn't come out until the next sunset.

**So there's that... should i keep going or is that good where it is?**


	7. Chapter 7

They were both sitting on the edge of the dock with their feet in the water. Jack had his fishing rod out and Sam had been watching him cast, slowly reel the line in, and cast again for the last hour and a half. They were talking about anything that came to mind and sporadically lapsed into silence. Sam scooted closer to him after his next reel, putting her head on his shoulder; he kissed her hair and went on fishing.

"Have you ever actually caught anything?"

"Course I have, why would I keep fishing if there weren't any fish?"

"Because you would," he smirked, she knew him too well. He glanced down at her hands, eyes lingering on the ring he had given her. The fact that it was on her finger and she was there with him was enough to put a idiot grin on his face for his next cast. "What's so funny?" She was looking at him, not the lake, he realized.

"Nothing…" He knew she wouldn't have been satisfied with that answer on any other day, but today seemed different. Today they were engaged and enjoying each others company before they had to go back to work.

They sat in silence for almost another hour before Sam got bored. "Oh c'mon, Sam! How many of those briefings did I sit through for you!"

"I'm sure it wasn't just for me, sir," she responded, noting how he flinched at 'sir,' "Sorry, Jack. Old habits die hard."

She went inside and made sandwiches, bringing out a beer for him and a diet for herself. He gave her an odd look when he noticed this, "My beer not good enough for you?"

"No, it's just…" She had planned on telling him this when they first arrived but he had proposed, and that had distracted her slightly. He set his fishing pole down and spun around to face her, taking his food from her and giving her a look that said 'spill or I'm throwing you in the lake.' Sam sat down in the spot she had just vacated. "Jack I'm..."

"What?" He was worried now, was she not sure about getting married? Did she have some disease; those doctors had run a lot of tests… "Sam, are you alright?" She nodded and took a deep breath before telling him as quickly as possible.

"Jack, I'm pregnant."

So it wasn't an awful disease, and she wasn't having second thoughts, a smile crept onto his face, but she didn't notice it because she was facing the lake, looking at her hands.

"I understand if you don't want to get married anymore…" there were tears in her voice even if they weren't on her face. "I know you might not wants children after… what happened."

He came up behind her, his meal lying on the dock next to the forgotten ring box. Encircling her in his arms was awkward from his squatting position on the dock, he was always squatting by her; he was too old to squat like this. She seemed startled that he would want to touch her, to be by her after that. "Of course I want to have kids, Sam. I love kids."

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, there's nobody I would rather have kids with," and that was all it took. The tears that had only been in her voice appeared on her cheeks and she buried her face in his neck, nearly tipping him over.

After awhile the tears stopped, Sam realized that he was squatting and laughed, "Jack, you're too old for this," he winced in agreement as he eased himself into a sitting position next to her.

"How far along are you?" She didn't look pregnant.

"I'll start showing soon… I guess all my meds had worn off by that first night," she smiled at him and the smile was contagious. He leaned over and kissed her, reveling in the thought that he would be able to do that for the rest of his life.

The base was alive with gossip, and half of it was true. Daniel, Teal'c, Mitchell and Vala were being bombarded with questions as soon as they stepped back through the 'gate. "Did you know this was going to happen?" "Which one of you is the best man?" "How long has this been going on?" The gossip mill only churned faster when it found out that SG1 appeared completely clueless as to what they were talking about.

"So, what's with all the questions?" Mitchell asked during their briefing. Landry smiled his half smile.

"According to the gossip, General O'Neill and Colonel Carter are engaged."

"What?" Vala asked.

"How could anybody even know that?" Mitchell burst out.

"Indeed," said Teal'c, raising the characteristic eyebrow. They all looked at Daniel for his input but he only smiled.

"You knew, didn't you?" Mitchell glared at the archeologist.

"Well its about time, Jack showed me the ring he bought her on his last visit before we went to that outpost. That was, what, seven months ago now?"

"Well I'll be damned…" Mitchell smiled.

"Indeed," was still all Teal'c had to say.

They continued with the briefing as usual, there was nothing interesting to report about the planet they had visited, the ruins they'd discovered hadn't even been interesting enough to keep Daniel busy for a day and they'd headed back early.

"I think I should probably give them a call…" Daniel said on his way out of the briefing room, Teal'c followed his friend to his lab and they listened to the ringing on speakerphone.

"Hello?" It was Jack's cabin, but Sam answered the phone.

"Sam! Hi!"

"Daniel, I thought you weren't due back until tomorrow!"

"Nice to hear from you too…"

"Aw c'mon, I didn't mean…"

"Are we to congratulate you ColonelCarter?" Teal'c cut right to the chase.

"Teal'c? Hey, am I on speakerphone?"

"Yeah, but the door's closed," Daniel assured her. "But, really, should we be congratulating you, the gossip mill's a-churning here…"

"Who's on the phone?" They heard, Jack's voice carried into the receiver.

"Daniel and Teal'c," it sounded like she was trying to cover the end of the phone and it wasn't working.

"Conference calling is about twenty dollars a minute long distance!"

"It's speakerphone, Jack…"

"Oh."

"Jack?" Daniel and Teal'c exchanged a glance, she hadn't even called Jack 'Jack' after they'd rescued them.

"Hey Daniel, Teal'c guess what! We're getting married!" Jack had taken the phone from Sam.

"Congratulations O'Neill, Colonel Carter," Teal'c said; he wasn't phased in the slightest, but his friend wasn't having as much luck. Daniel had a huge grin on his face, so big that Teal'c was concerned for his mental well-being.

"That's great!" Daniel finally said, "Do you have a date yet?"

"We were actually hoping to do it at the end of our leave this week…"

"So soon?"

"Well, it's hard to find time when both of us can come together, and nobody's… out of town right now…" _I'd also like to be able to fit into a dress…_ Sam added to herself.

"You guys can duke it out to figure out who's going to be the best man…" Jack added.

The wedding was only a day away and Sam still hadn't found a dress. Hating herself for agreeing to get married that _week_, she walked into their fifth bridal store, Cassie and Jack in tow. Cassie was thoroughly enjoying the experience, after she'd finished jumping up and down and hugging them. Jack, however, was tired of dress shops. He didn't mind seeing Sam come out in dress after dress, each making her look more beautiful in his eyes than the last, but five? It was getting ridiculous.

Sam walked out in the next dress selection, showing off to her friends. Jack inhaled sharply, he liked this one. Cassie stood up and examined it before starting to jump around again. The dress was relatively low cut, with little sleeves that held onto her shoulders but didn't do anything to hold the dress up. There wasn't really a back to it, but train more than made up for the lack of fabric above. There were little swirly designs embroidered all over in white, adding texture to the cloth but not distracting from the overall 'whiteness' of it. Surprisingly enough, Sam actually felt comfortable in this dress; she wouldn't mind spending the entire evening in. The price tag wasn't too bad either.

"What do you think?" She asked Jack, Cassie had heartily approved of every dress she'd tried on, but Jack was honest when he didn't like something about it. He stood up and walked around her, as though he hadn't made up his mind yet.

"You're beautiful, Sam," he said, pecking her on the cheek; she blushed, looking away from Cassie.

"It's settled then!" Cassie said excitedly.

They paid for the dress, and left the store with the garment bag. They had been exceedingly lucky when it came to planning this event. They had found a church and a priest available in their first round of calls; they'd had some difficulty getting a caterer on such short notice but had eventually found someone, and the were paying the price for the short notice. Flowers were another thing altogether. They had only the selections of the stock in the flower shop at the moment; there was no time to have specialty flowers shipped from wherever. Everything was decidedly beautiful anyways.

Jack had been especially ecstatic when he had been able to talk the right people into letting them use the 'gate to send invitations; their reception would be a classified event. The wedding itself would only be attended by humans and non-conspicuous looking alien counterparts, but the more interesting characters would only be allowed to attend the after-party. Luckily, Sam's only relative had recently gotten himself clearance, his wife and children not being able to make it on such short notice, and Jack had made a point of not mentioning his own family.

"Are you sure you don't want to at least call them, Jack?" She asked him yet again. They'd been having this discussion every night.

"I'm sure, Sam. They wouldn't come if we invited them," Sam still wasn't sure what she thought of this. He had told her that his mother was still alive, living with his brother in Wisconsin, close to the Minnesota border. He wouldn't really talk about it but Sam was more than aware that they had had a falling out even before Sara and Charlie had come into the picture.

"Okay."

"Okay?" He was surprised she was giving up, but then they'd had this talk for five nights in a row. "No more insistences?"

"No, they're your family, Jack. If you don't want them to come I'm not going to make you call them."

"Good," he smiled at her. She rolled her eyes and moved away from the subject.

"We're getting married _tomorrow_!" She hugged him close.

"Yes we are," he smiled, holding her there. "And we're going to have a kid… Shouldn't we be looking through name books or something?"

"O c'mon… we're not even married yet, can't that all wait till after the wedding?"

"Yeah, but its only a few months away."

"Well the wedding is only a few hours away!"

"True," he leaned down and kissed her.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mark wasn't sure he'd ever seen his sister so happy in his life.

She was smiling and laughing and walking around in the big white dress like she had spent every waking moment of her life in those heels and not in combat boots. He had been completely and utterly shocked when Sam had called him only a day after he'd left her house, saying that she was going to be married and that she wanted him to give her away. At first he'd been wary, who was she marrying? what about Pete? why would she marry when she was still on the rebound? Sam had patiently explained her situation, leaving out the pregnant part, and he had finally agreed. He wasn't sure if he liked this Jack character yet though, it sounded like he would be spending more time in D.C. than with his wife. But, Sam was happy, and today he didn't want to mess that up.

The ceremony had been nothing unusual, they'd both said "I do" without any pause, and nobody had run in yelling "I object!" or anything like that. It was the reception that he was so uncomfortable with.

He was seated next to Cassandra Fraser, the maid of honor, looking over the crowd. The younger woman didn't seemed disturbed at all, even though jaffa were walking around in bulking traditional garb, Thor could be spotted sitting next to General Hammond, and a large number of other humanoid aliens in their own unique costume drifted from table to table.

"So," he said to Cassie, trying to get his mind off his sister's strange friends. "How does someone as young as you have the clearance to get into an event like this?" Cassie chuckled.

"Well, I'm from a different planet…"

"What?"

"SG1 rescued me when I was a little girl, a Goa'uld had killed everybody on my planet and tried to use me as a bomb to blow up the SGC," she usually wasn't as calm about telling people about hte tragedy that had brought her to this world, but she was in too good a mood to dwell on the past.

"How could you be a bomb?"

"There was a growth, by my heart, that had explosive elements in it and would act up whenever I got near the 'gate."

"Well, I'll say this. My sister has sure made something of her life," they both smiled.

Sam and Jack danced the night away, feeling incredibly lucky to finally be together. The crowd around them was full of interesting people, their friends. Half of the SGC had turned up, all in dress blues, all bearing gifts, though most of the gifts were white elephants in response to the General's humor. Tok'ra who had worked with her father were in attendance, as well as Thor, a few people from the Land of the Light, Abu had come with a few Shavadai who they had come into contact with during their visit, and Teal'c had brought Bra'tac and his family back from Chulak. Everybody even seemed to be having a good time, despite the fact that only half of those in attendance knew the chicken dance.

To their disappointment, they had to take a rain check on a honeymoon. Jack had to return to D.C. and Sam had a huge pile of paperwork and fresh new doohickeys to catch up on. For their first month of marriage, they didn't even get to see each other. Daniel and Teal'c tried to be supportive of Sam, keep her mind off of things and keep their down time full of team movie-nights and other activities. It didn't help as much as they would've wished, they still caught her staring at the ring on her finger when they walked in on her alone in her lab. Long hours talking on the phone helped, but they still weren't together.

Sam went frequently to the infirmary, escaping Daniel and Teal'c, to get her maternity checks. She'd have to tell everybody soon, she could see the difference when she looked at herself even though nobody else could.

"Jack," she said one night on the phone. It was incredibly late, they'd already been talking for hours, and Jack had to be up in the morning for a meeting with the Joint Chiefs.

"Yeah?"

"We're having twins," he could hear the nervous smile in her voice.

"What?"

"Twins, twin girls."

"Two little girls…" Now she could hear the smile in his voice, only not nervous at all.

"They're so tiny, I'm scanning the ultrasound into the computer right now, and emailing it to you," the scanner whirred to life next to her. The fuzzy black and white picture of two little heads attached to two perfect little bodies that had just become her favorite picture in the universe, and she meant that because she'd been to all corners of the universe and couldn't think of anything she treasured more right now, short of the real thing growing inside her and the man she was talking to on the phone.

"Two little girls, Thor's gonna have a stroke," he said smirked.

"I know, its odd that he would suggest, how did he put it, that it would be profitable the the Asgard if you made motions to further your line before you were no longer able..."

"You know better than anybody that I'm perfectly able to..." He was interrupted by Sam's laughter from the other end.

"I think the evidence of that right here," she put her hand on her belly even though he couldn't see her.


	8. Chapter 8

Sam had decided that it was finally time to tell her team that she was expecting. She had been getting weird looks from Vala for the past month, and Daniel kept offering to go to the gym with her; she had been offended at first but they meant well.

Landry had been told by the doctors as soon as they knew and SG1 had been restricted to less active missions immediately, to the dismay of everybody else on the team. It was during on of their usual complaining sessions over lunch that Sam finally got up the nerve to ask after stirring her jello around without eating it for at least ten minutes.

"I mean, why should _we _have to go do this 'make sure they're okay' thing? We should be the team out there looking for Merlin's thingamajig, not SG3," Mitchell said for the fifth time.

"Sorry guys, that's kind of my fault…" Sam blurted. She hadn't thought about how she would do this yet, and had been avoiding thinking of ways to tell them.

"What?" Daniel asked, his mouth half full of his own dessert, "How could it be your fault?"

"Well…" She sighed and pushed back from the table, wishing she hadn't even started. "I'm pregnant."

That phrase drew the most humorous reaction she could've imagined. Daniel began coughing and stared at her, Mitchell, who had been leaning his chair back so that the back two feet were all that supported him, tipped his chair over, Teal'c just raised an eyebrow; "That's great!" Vala said louder than necessary, Sam smiled at her appreciatively.

"You're what?" Daniel finally found his voice. Mitchell righted his chair and plopped himself down on it, staring at Sam.

"You heard me," now that the whole room was staring at them due to Mitchell's pageantry she didn't want to repeat it.

"Yeah, but, did you say what I think you said?"

"She did indeed, DanielJackson, congratulations Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c actually smiled at her; she could've hugged him, but she knew better. It had taken awhile for her to get accustomed to being called 'Colonel O'Neill,' almost as long as it had taken people to get accustomed to calling her that, "It's nice to have an O'Neill on the team again," Daniel had told her. Teal'c, of course, had made the transition effortlessly.

Sam had run to her lab when none of her teammates had been able to think of anything to say. By now the rumor mill of the SGC had guessed everything from Sam's retirement, to her transfer to Washington to be with her husband, to the truth, though it was the least popular idea. Sam was amused when she bumped into a nervous-looking Sergeant in the elevator, apparently he'd heard that she had set all the naquadah reactors to go off simultaneously unless Landry retired and made her General.

Sitting alone in her lab hadn't been her plan. She stared at her doohickeys and wished something would break in the control room so she could fix it and have something to keep her mind off of her friends' reactions. She poked one of her projects with a pencil and it sparked, she set out to fix what she'd broken.

A few minutes later, Daniel and Teal'c entered.

"Sam, we didn't mean to…"

"I know, Daniel," she sighed, spinning around on her stool to face them.

"We should celebrate," Daniel decided.

Sam's mood got better throughout the evening as Teal'c and Daniel dragged her around Colorado Springs to various non-alcoholic entertainment centers. She was glad that her friends supported her as well as they did.

"So we'll have a min-Jack or Sam running around pretty soon, huh?"

"Actually, we'll have two mini-Sams…" Sam told them. Daniel's face froze in surprise as it had earlier that day, at least this time he didn't end up coughing.

"That is good news, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c put a hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks, Teal'c."

It took another month but Jack and Sam finally had time together, and they were using it to visit Wisconsin, where Sam would meet Jack's mother and brother.

Sam had told her husband about the team's reaction and he had thrown her one of his smirks, "To be there to see Mitchell fall off his chair…" he chuckled.

"I didn't find it that funny," Sam recalled how their reactions had hurt, even though she hadn't really shown it; the situation _had _been funny though, in retrospect.

"Oh, c'mon Sam… You know they love us," he gave her a light squeeze, being careful of her now quite swollen belly; Sam had known it was going to be an uncomfortable trip, she was coming up on seven months pregnant with two girls inside of her that seemed to like to kickbox. She had gotten pitying looks from all the Airmen as they boarded their hop.

Sam was nervous, more nervous than she had been the first time she stepped through the stargate. At least this time nobody would try to shoot her.

Jack helped her out of the rental car, and put an arm around her waist as she waddled up to the door. She was glad for the contact, it reminded her that he was there, and she loved him all the more for it. They could hear the doorbell ringing inside; it shouldn't be taking anybody this long to get to the door…

"You _did_ call them, right Jack?" He still got a twinge up his spine whenever she used his first name, he smiled over at her.

"'Course I did, I didn't even know the street number… I had to call for that," Sam shook her head, even though they hadn't always gotten along; she'd always at least known where her brother lived.

A man with Jack's dark brown eyes and graying hair answered the door a few seconds later; then he slammed it in their faces. Sam and Jack stood on the doorstep, completely dumbfounded.

"Who was it?" A woman's voice called from somewhere behind the door.

"Salesman."

"What were they selling?"

"Dunno."

"Oh, fercryinoutloud, Chris, you have to listen to their pitch or they wont go away," Jack knocked again, and the door opened. "Jon," his mother said, surprised. She looked to be in her mid-seventies, she had short white hair with a little gray at the temples, she was almost a head shorter than Sam, and her light brown eyes had anger somewhere behind the mask she put up.

"Hi Mom, good to see you!" Jack's voice held forced cheerfulness.

"I thought I told you that you didn't have to drop by…"

"We were in the neighborhood."

"We?" His mother glanced around him and spotted Sam, and her eyes widened when she noticed that Sam hugely with child.

"Hello," Sam said awkwardly, shifting on her feet, still half hidden behind her husband.

"Can we come in?" Jack asked as his mother continued staring at Sam.

"I guess…" the older woman moved aside to let the pair of them in. His brother groaned audibly as they entered, though he didn't give up his spot at the kitchen table, where they all sat.

"How've you been Chris?"

"Fine," his mother joined them, sitting across from Sam, still staring.

"You seem to have been busy, Jonathan," Sam blushed.

"Mom, this is my wife, Sam."

"How did you get stuck with my ungrateful brother?"

"We work together…"

"You're military?" His mother asked, looking shocked.

"Lt. Colonel Sam O'Neill, mom," Jack filled in.

"How did you get pulled into such an awful thing as the military?"

"My Dad was Air Force," Sam began to explain.

"So was mine, and I didn't end up there."

"Thank God," Jack said under his breath so that only Sam could hear.

"So…let me guess, you're a scientist," Chris finally asked.

"Yes."

"What do you do at that mountain again, Jon?"

"She's the head of the science department."

"Really?" there was no interest behind the words.

"So what have you all been up to?" Jack asked after another moment of silence.

"I teach high school math," Chris said bluntly. Either he didn't like his job or he didn't want Sam or Jack to know that he loved what he did. _Must be an O'Neill thing,_ Sam decided.

After another hour of awkward conversation Chris decided that he had to get back to grading math assignments, and his mother decided that she wanted to do gardening; this left Sam and Jack sitting in the kitchen alone.

"I suppose we should just go," Jack said, looking extremely put out. On the drive back to the airport he apologized for his family's behavior, "Sorry, Sam," he said, "I really expected them to be a little more… hospitable, especially since we were _there_."

"Its okay, Jack, now I understand why you didn't want to call them about the wedding," she really did understand, and she was only concerned about Jack's reaction to his less that pleasant family.

"At least they did something right," she commented after a few minutes down the road.

"And what's that?" He asked, doubting that she had found anything positive.

"Well, you came out all right," he smiled and they continued back to their hotel.

"What's the plan for the rest of this leave then?" She asked him after flopping down onto the bed in relief; her ankles and back had been complaining all day.

"What do _you_ want to do?" He looked at her with pity before pulling a chair towards her and taking her feet in his lap. He then began to give her the best foot massage she had ever had.

"I love you," she told him, lying down the rest of the way on the bed.

"Yes, but do you love me because I can rub feet or because I'm me?"

"Definitely because you can rub feet," she smiled at the ceiling.

"So, about the rest of our leave…?"

"I don't know, you know this place better than I do…"

"Well, they have a lot of cheese shops…"

"I'm not really a cheese person."

"I now, me neither. Damn cheeseheads…" Sam chuckled at this, she would've leaned up and hugged him, but the foot rub would've stopped then.

"I can get us a flight to San Diego, if you want to visit your brother…" He suggested, this did get her to sit up.

"You want to meet Mark?"

"Well, I saw him on base that once, and at the wedding…"

"Yeah, but… Mark at home with his family is completely different from the Mark that visits me."

"How so?"

"He gets a little overprotective- I'm surprised he didn't grill you the first time you met, or even at the wedding."

"I was kind of surprised about that myself… Hey Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you think your Dad would've thought?" Sam did give him a hug this time.

"You know Dad liked you."

"Yeah, but he was my friend, I don't think he ever thought he'd have to chase me away from his daughter…"

"He knew better," she smiled, leaning in for a kiss.

"You really think he…"

"Why is it so important?"

"He was your Dad, Sam. You gotta respect that…"

"Yes, Jack, he would've been very happy for us."

"You sure?"

"Yes; eventually, after he got used to the idea, he would've been very happy," she wouldn't let him speak anymore, keeping his mouth busy for the next few minutes.

"So, did you want to catch that flight to California?"

"Are you sure, we could just… I don't know, be tourists for a day…"

"I'm just wondering," he smiled at her. "It's just that usually, when you're a tourist, you walk around and sight-see, and I get the feeling you're not going to be up for a day of walking."

"Oh yeah," he smiled at her.

"So, shall we catch the hop?"

"Sure. Why not, if you want to see Mark that bad."

"I do believe I've come into the possession of a few nieces and nephews that I'd like to meet too…" He smiled.

The flight was uneventful, they weren't able to get a hop but they didn't mind putting up for commercial tickets, at least Sam would be a little more comfortable in the first class seats they booked. "Is all this flying really a good idea for the babies?" She wondered aloud as they took their seats.

"Y'know, I don't know. We should probably pick a spot soon…" He smiled.

Mark was extremely surprised to see them. First he was surprised that he was seeing so much of his sister lately, who he had previously not heard from for months on end; and secondly he was surprised that she was pregnant, a fact that she had definitely _not_ mentioned in their last conversation.

"Hi!" She said cheerily.

"General O'Neill, what the hell did you do to my sister?"

"Ummm…"

"Mark! There are kids around!"

"No, actually, Pete took them for ice cream…" Sam blanched the moment Pete's name came out of his mouth. If Pete had taken them for ice cream, that meant he'd be bringing them back, and he'd see her in her current state. She had felt awful about the whole situation, but she _had_ called off the engagement before she and Jack had been stranded together. Jack had twitched slightly when Pete was mentioned, as he always did, Sam wasn't sure if it was jealousy, or just sensitivity.

"Now isn't a bad time, is it?" Jack asked.

"No, 'course not; we haven't got any plans or anything, at least not for another week."

"You don't mind us just dropping by, do you?" Sam sounded worried. If her brother even mentioned a slight discomfort she would be on her way, especially if it meant avoiding Pete.

"No way, Sam, it's great to see both of you," he stood there smiling for a few seconds before he realized they were still outside. "Why don't you come in?"

The three of them walked in and Jack took in the place, the walls were covered with photos of the family; Mark's kids; his wife, Laura's, nieces; Sam and Mark in a tree when they were young; a young looking Jacob and a woman who looked remarkably like Sam, their mother, he figured. It was a big difference from the O'Neill household, where the only things on the walls were lights fixtures.

"Do you want something to drink?" He asked, as they settled onto the comfortable sofas in the living room.

"I'm fine, thanks," Jack said.

"Could I have a glass of water?" Sam requested.

"Sure," her brother nodded and went to get it. When he returned they fell to casual conversation, light and cheery; nothing like Sam had expected. Apparently her brother did actually like her husband.

"You know what would be really good right now?' Sam asked after about a half an hour. Mark and Jack exchanged knowing looks, ready to hear the latest craving.

"Pickles and tuna fish."

"What?"

"Pickles and tuna fish, doesn't that sound good?"

"Not really," Mark muttered under his breath.

"Do you have any pickles and tuna?" Jack asked, the dutiful husband.

"Ummm, we've got tuna salad but nobody really likes pickles… Sam _you_ don't even like pickles!"

"I do now," she said with a smile, Jack jsut shrugged.

"I'll go to the store and get some pickles, do you want sweet or dill?"

"Sweet."

"Will do, I'll be back soon," he grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. Halfway there, he spun around and faced Mark, "Where's the store?"

After he got directions and was on his way, Mark and Sam started talking again. "So, you're finally settling down… starting a family."

"Yup," Sam smiled at her brother.

"So, how far along are you? You look great, by the way."

"Seven months," when she got the 'you're-huge-but-I'll-never-say-it' look she clarified. "But I'm expecting twins so…" she gestured to her large abdomen. He nodded understanding.

"Boys or girls…?"

"Two girls."

"Do you have any names picked out?"

"No, we haven't really talked about it yet… we really don't get that much time together, with work and all," she frowned slightly. "Anyways, I suppose we'll get to that soon enough."

"Yeah," he sighed, obviously happy for his sister.

A gentle knocking at the front door interrupted their conversation before the door burst open, letting two little girls and a little boy into the room. All were smiling broadly and had ice cream on their shirts. Pete followed the three children, looking apologetic; he froze when he saw Sam. Her pregnancy was hidden by the couch but that didn't stop him from going stony-faced at the sight of her. Their last meeting had been when she dumped him.

"Hey kids, Pete, how was ice cream?" Mark asked, trying to ignore the awkward looks the other two adults were giving each other.

"Good!" The littlest girl, Kara, said, giving her father a hug, and getting ice cream on his shirt too.

"Uncle Pete had three scoops!" The boy, Tyler, said.

"How many did you have?" Mark asked, Tyler looked sheepish and glanced at Pete before answering.

"One…"

"How may did he have?" Mark asked Pete, who finally looked away from Sam to grin as sheepishly as the boy at his friend.

"Three and a half."

"What!"

"I had chocolate ice cream," Liza, the oldest of the three at ten years, told him before noticing Sam. "Auntie Sam!"

There was no more avoiding it, Sam stood up, plastering a huge smile on her face. "Hey kids!" She held out her arms for hugs.

Before long she was just as covered in ice cream as Mark. "Are you having a baby, Auntie Sam?" Kara asked. Sam nodded.

"Yup, I'm having _two_."

"You're having twins?" Liza asked, trying to look mature.

"Daddy, I wanted to be a twin," Kara informed her father, who just smiled, still ignoring the tension between the other adults.

"Are they going to be boys?" Tyler asked hopefully, he didn't like being the only boy in the family.

"Sorry," Sam said, "You're still stuck. We've got two little girls on the way."

The kids cleared out after a second, running to change their shirts on their father's orders. The three adults stood in the living room awkwardly.

"How far along are you?" Pete asked, trying to find out if he was the father.

"Seven months," she assured him. He nodded.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"O c'mon you guys…" Mark started, but Jack chose that moment to walk in carrying a jar of sweet pickles.

"I'm back!" He said before looking around. Pete's face went stony again, and Mark and Sam both looked uncomfortable.

"So you're the father, huh?"

"What?" Before Jack could react Pete had thrown a punch to where Jack's face would've been if he didn't have impeccable reflexes. He held the pickle jar close and removed himself to the other side of the couch.

"Pete…" Sam used her best peace-making voice but it didn't do much for her ex's temper. He gave them a hurt look and stormed out. Sam glanced at Jack apologetically before following him out, closing the door behind her. "Pete…"

"What do you want, Sam?"

"I'm sorry…"

"I'm sure you are," he started his truck and drove away before she could respond. Sighing, she returned to the house.

"Pickles?" Jack asked her, holding out the pickle jar.

"Thanks, Jack," she took the jar and headed for the kitchen to find the tuna; she was upset about Pete, but the craving was driving her mad.

**Okay, there it is, sorry for the wait. **


	9. Chapter 9

"I HATE YOU!" Sam yelled at the top of her voice. Jack just stood there, holding her hand and wiping the sweat off her forehead, wishing he could do more.

Sam had been in labor for five hours now and she had just started pushing. They had been lucky, Sam had gone into labor on her exact due date, a date that Jack had managed to get off to fly down and be with her. They had been sitting at Sam's house, watching movies when she'd had her first contraction; by the fourth contraction they knew she was in labor and had rushed to the SGC. There, Dr. Lam had set her up in a private room and came and went often, measuring her and assuring her she was doing fine.

When the contraction ended she looked up and Jack and whispered, "I wish Janet were here…" He nodded in understanding; though Dr. Lam was friendly and very good at what she did, she wasn't Janet. Another contraction hit and she let out a string of profanity that Jack had never expected from the scientist.

Teal'c and Daniel were in the room with them too, standing on the other side of the bed and looking nervous. Teal'c eyebrow had been raised for the past five hours, and Daniel's were knitted together with worry. Mitchell and Vala had been shooed out an hour previous; they had been getting in the way, and put up less of a fuss than Daniel or Teal'c would've.

"There's a head, Colonel O'Neill!" Dr. Lam called out, a few minutes later; the baby's cries filled the room. Sam heaved a sigh of relief as Dr. Lam cleaned the child off, wrapped her in a blanket and handed her to her father. "You have one beautiful little girl, General… Colonel you can't stop pushing now, one more to go.'

"You don't think I know that!" She asked heatedly as another contraction hit and she began pushing again.

Jack returned to her side, holding their child in one arm; the girl had stopped crying the moment he had taken her from the doctor. Sam grabbed his other arm again, digging her fingernails into their accustomed spots. He wanted to make a sarcastic comment about the state of his arm but he knew better.

"There you go!" Dr. Lam said as the second head appeared. Within a few minutes the second little girl was in her father's arms, the first was already with Sam.

"What are you going to name them?" Daniel asked. Sam and Jack glanced at each other; they had spent hours on the phone discussing that very question.

"Janet Therese and Katherine Anne," Jack told them, motioning that the first baby would be Janet and the second would be Katherine.

"After Janet and Dr. Langford," Sam explained, cooing down at her daughter, still breathless. The labor had been a remarkably quick one, especially for twins, but Sam was glad of that, not wanting to keep the two little girls from the world for another moment.

"Good names," Daniel said, watching the new parents.

"Indeed," Teal'c smiled.

Sam stayed in her room for the rest of the week, recuperating and smiling at guests when they came to visit. Jack never left her side, always holding one of the girls, or watching them carefully in the crib that they were sharing.

"Jack," she called him to her after he had laid both the sleeping girls in the crib.

"Yeah?"

"I love you," they shared a smile.

"I love you too."

Thor appeared in the center of the room, ruining the moment.

"Thor! Good to see ya!" The General said in a strained voice, meaning that he really could've done without the visit.

"Greetings O'Neills," he said, nodding to them both before going over to look at the children, "I wish to congratulate you on the birth of your daughters."

"How did you know they were girls?" Sam asked, attempting to get out of bed, Jack had to go hold her elbow, knowing better than to push her back down.

"I have been observing for some time," the little gray alien assured them.

"Oh."

"So, you just came to say hi…?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately not, O'Neill, I have come to request blood reading on both of your daughters."

"Thor, they're not even a week old! C'mon, why not wait a little while…"

"I am sorry, O'Neill, but the Asgard Council is being unusually… stubborn in this case. They insist that I return with the samples by this evening, I have waited as long as I can."

"What's a blood reading?" Sam asked, imagining huge needles and shivering. Instead, Thor held up a small, square-ish device, placing it on Jack's arm.

"Hey, that tickles!" Thor removed the device; it flashed blue before shutting down again.

"That is all required to take a blood reading," he assured the pair of them. Sam nodded her assent, before Jack could contradict her, Thor held the device over Janet's arm, the device flashed blue again, and he repeated the process for Katherine. "If you do not mind, Colonel O'Neill, I would like to take a reading of you as well," Sam nodded again, holding out her arm.

They went home that evening, not mentioning Thor's visit to anyone. Landry had granted Sam leave for the next two months to get settled at home, and Jack was considering retirement once again.

_Epilogue: _

Jack's retirement from the Pentagon sent another shift down the chain of command. Landry was given the position at the Pentagon, the news being spread officially at the same ceremony that made Sam into Brigadier General Sam O'Neill, commander at the SGC. She had gotten the position over Mitchell out of seniority, and because she didn't want to go offworld with two little girls at home, wondering if she'd be coming home that night.

It some getting used to, running the SGC, but she did like the chair. Jack made fun of her whenever he came to visit, finding her with her feet on her desk; but usually she was poking at some new doohickey instead of doing paperwork. She was glad that she had time for both, and the doohickeys were much more entertaining than the paperwork.

It was determined that both Janet and Kate had the Ancient gene, and, to their surprise, an amount of naquadah in their blood; when they grew up, both of them would be able to use Ancient and Goa'uld technology. Sam wasn't sure how she felt about this yet.

Every night, when she lay in her husband's arms, she couldn't help but think of the irony behind their relationship. Long years of sexual tension between them, as well as the frat regs had kept them apart, they had needed a man-eating (or at least Sam-eating) wall to bring them together, and they were both thankful that it had.

**Alright, thats it! Thank you all for reading and reviewing, I hope this ending was satisfacory, if not tell me so & i might be able to work something into another fic or something! I love you all Mak**


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